Other People's Children

A rom-com à la française is still a rom-com, and this is a particularly poor one. Why it's currently being shown with the imprimatur of Film at Lincoln Center I cannot fathom. The film involves some talented performers, particulalrly Roschdy Zem. I'm even willing to believe that Virginie Efira, the protagonist, is in fact talented. But director Rebecca Zlotowski's obsession with her is carried to such a a discomforting extreme that 80% of the film (I may be exaggerating just a little) is made up of tight shots of her face striking different attitudes, without a lot of the kind of background or build-up that would justify most of them. And one of the more interesting plot lines - she's Jewish, he's named Ali and is thus presumptively Muslim - goes totally unexplored. You get a lot of performative Jewish observance, but nothing about his heritage, whatever it may be (the niceties of French republicanism allow this to pass without comment). Like his excessively cute daughter, Ali isn't a full- blown charcter, he's just a plot device. All the attention is on Efira'a character, her concern over what may be premature menopause, and her poorly backgrounded neuroses. None of which is developed to the point where this viewer, at least, was particularly interested. More romantic views of Paris are inserted than are justified, other than for marketing purposes - compare and contrast with the current and far better, more substantive Everything Went Fine, a film set in Paris in which there is not a single shot of the Eiffel Tower or any other hint of Paris la romantique, but that is rigorously set in the Paris that people actually live in.

To go one would be cruel, and pointless, like the film itself, which is a real dud. Good music score, though.