DRAMA; 1hr 33min
STARRING: Jim Broadbent, Lindsay Duncan, Jeff Goldblum
Bridge of sighs: Duncan and Broadbent
With the brave aim of recharging their marriage, a senior-ish English couple train it to Paris for a French-ervescent weekend. Nick (Broadbent) and Meg (Duncan) are on different pages — he’s tight-fisted yet doting while she’s emotionally withdrawn and financially reckless. They’re one more midlife crisis-ridden couple craving illumination from the city renowned for it. But with a screenplay by My Beautiful Laundrette’s Hanif Kureishi, direction from Notting Hill ’s Roger Michell and these two actors in the shared drivers’ seat, the tarnished workings of an enduring partnership ring achingly true.
Paris turns on the charm for Nick and Meg as only Paris can, at Montmartre, Père Lachaise Cemetery, a splendiferous, unaffordable hotel and the lavish apartment of a blowhard expat writer (Goldblum). Where that charm will take them is open-ended, with her blowing hot and cold, him being possessive and flayed and buried resentments bubbling up. One enduring fact is certain: they may not especially like what they see, but the lights of the city will reflect them to themselves.
