2 days in paris

Writer-director-actor Julie Delpy's 2 Days in Paris uses every convention of the American-couple-visits-Europe brand of romantic comedy-mostly hating on the French. It's a formula that might make for a perfectly enjoyable and perfectly forgettable film. Delpy's sharp humor, however, lifts the film above any clichés of the genre.

Delpy (Before Sunset) plays Marion, a Parisian-turned-New Yorker on a European vacation with anti-French boyfriend Jack (Entourage's Adam Goldberg). Marion drags Jack through the twisted world of her sexually liberal parents, deranged sister and former flames in a French-i-fied version of Meet the Parents. The trip is meant to reawaken their passions, beleaguered after two years of dating.

The language barrier prevents Jack from understanding Marion's explicit interactions with old boyfriends. Jack's stomach, sensitive to French food, fear of terrorist attacks, and Marion's father (a painter of perverse sex scenes) is consistently entertaining and his xenophobia provides most of the humor. Although the film contains its fair share of crass humor, Delpy never lets vulgarity taint the overall tone.

The comedy moves the plot along rather than distracting from it. Each scene around Paris, which could stand on its own as a vignette, reveals the depth of their relationship. Jack's paranoia over Marion's sexual history escalates every time he spots her with another man. Likewise, Marion's annoyance with Jack's dismissive attitude toward Paris is exacerbated by his obsessive prying.

The general atmosphere of animosity climaxes in the last 20 minutes of the film when a radical vegan unleashes hell in a Parisian burger joint- a clever commentary on the American fear of terrorism.

Delpy could have recycled the average Meg Ryan chick-flick ending. Instead, she manages to give a sophisticated treatment of the relationship between two mature, if slightly neurotic 35-year-olds.