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French Kiss starring Meg Ryan, Kevin Kline, Timothy Hutton, Jean Reno and Susan Anbeh. Image:farm4.static.flickr.com

American Kate (Meg Ryan) is living in Canada with her fiancé Charlie (Timothy Hutton). And as far as she is concerned, life is bliss: she is closer to Charlie’s parents than Charlie is, is about to be a Canadian citizen and she is finally able to afford the house of their dreams. Even though Charlie is a bit freaked, he seems happy and content enough…until he goes to Paris for a work event. Kate needs to stay in the country because of the immigration process and she is afraid to death of flying anyway…

However, one day she gets a phone call from Charlie that changes her life forever. He tells her that he has fallen in love with a French woman and is not coming back. Kate gets on the next plane. She just has to go to France and take Charlie back. She ends up sitting next to a French guy named Luc (Kevin Kline), who just provides a distraction for her to survive the flight. However, Luc really needs to get an item through the customs and uses Kate for it, without her knowing of course.

But it is not long before Luc loses Kate, Kate’s bags are stolen, the French police are after Luc- who is after Kate who tries to survive in Paris until she can persuade Charlie to come back…Of course many funny scenes, confusion and romantic feelings follow. Can Kate take Charlie back with Luc’s help? Or will she even want Charlie after spending all that time with Luc?

French Kiss is a really entertaining, funny and romantic film, mostly set in France. It co-stars Jean Reno as the friendly cop who owes Luc a favor and Charlie’s French goddess Juliette is played by Suzan Anbeh, an actress half-French and half-Iranian.

Admittedly, I hadn’t loved this film so much when I saw it years ago. But back then, I hadn’t been to France, met French guys, listened to many French accents, wasn’t a fan of the cast except Meg Ryan. But years later, after having done all that, and having followed the work of Timothy Hutton, Kevin Kline and Jean Reno, and well, having experience the French culture many times, I just had a blast with. I believe French Kiss to be a guy-friendly romcom. Yeah sure, you can make all the usual complaints: “I knew the ending from the get-go” (yeah, so did everybody else),” it was predictable”,” would have been more original if Luc ended up with Juliette….” . So? This might be a typical romantic comedy with some fun criminal aspects involved, but it doesn’t change the fact that it is spot on with so many jokes and it is just an overall charming and entertaining movie. Oh yes, Kate is pretty much the same gal Meg Ryan always plays but some actors do have a trademark: Sylvester has been cashing on all these years: Meg Ryan is the romcom princess and he uses the muscles. They don’t really make movies to shatter the earth, they make money and entertain by using money-making clichés.

Now, it is also fun to note that this is not the only movie where Timothy Hutton’s character wants to leave Meg Ryan’s for another woman- in 2009’s Serious Moonlight, he wants to leave their long-term marriage but suffers a totally unexpected faith. This is also not the only romcom where Meg Ryan goes by the name of Kate. She played Kate in Kate and Leopold, opposite Hugh Jackman.

You have got the clichés and the stereotypes but you also have a hilarious performance from Kevin Kline, Timothy Hutton as your scumbag, Jean Reno for an inspector and a lovely, natural Meg Ryan. And this is pretty much all I wanted from this 1995 “chick flick”, which happens to be written by a guy (Adam Brooks) and directed by another guy (Lawrence Kasdan). Just enjoy yourself. 6.1 on IMDB, 7/10 from me.

Fun note: In 2007,Meg Ryan starred in In The Land of Women, a romantic drama written and directed by Jon Kasdan, son of director Lawrence Kasdan.

Other Posts on Timothy Hutton

Ordinary People starring Timothy Hutton, Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore and Judd Hirsch

Serious Moonlight starring Timothy Hutton and Meg Ryan

Taps starring Timothy Hutton, Tom Cruise and Sean Penn

Leverage TV Series starring Timothy Hutton

The Ghost Writer starring Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan. Feat. Timothy Hutton

The Good Shepherd starring Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie. Feat. Timothy Hutton

Other Posts on Meg Ryan

You’ve Got Mail starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan

City of Angels starring Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan

beforeSunset_Wall7_800 — Before Sunset starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy

trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvFosXeqmDg

If you haven’t seen Before Sunrise, please do. I am not saying this sequel won’t make sense if you haven’t, but trust me it will be so much more meaning ful. You see, Before Sunset is the follow-up to Before Sunrise- a great emotional movie that took place in 1995. I previously wrote about the first movie. I have seen it a lot of times and after watching Before Sunset again,I felt I had to write about it.

I will feel free to give spoilers, because what might seem like a spoiler for the first movie, is actually the obligatory introduction to the second.

In Before Sunrise, we met Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy). These 20 somethings met on a train while French Celine was going back to her hometown and American Jesse was on his way to Vienna where he was supposed to catch a flight the next day to the States.
Soon after they started talking, they actually bonded. Yeah, they were having fun being around each other and obviously there was attraction but the bond was also obvious. Two stranger, making a perfect connection through a chance encounter. Jesse didn’t want to let go of this and asked Celine to get off the train with him. She did. And they had an amazing day, and its night in Vienna. The bond got deeper, attraction grew and they just didn’t want to let go. To see how genuine the movie,the characters and the story go, to feel the passion and the magic of their relationship, you have to see the movie. And feel free to check imdb. It has been rated by more than 34.000 people, and it has been rated as an 8/1o. My point is if so many people agreed on this, it means both men and women liked it. It means a lot of people with different movie tastes loved it. It can’t be labeled as a mainstream movie nor it exactly fits the independent spirit where a minority seems to get the message of. It means the viwevers felt the connection as well and this does not happen very often.

So when I heard director Richard Linklater had made a sequel, I rushed to see it. You see Before Sunrise leaves you wondering whether Celine and Jesse will meet again. Whether they will have the same connection or not. The second movie answers these questions for the two characters we loved so much.

Celine and Jesse had agreed to meet 6 months later as Before Sunrise came to an end. We sadly find out that they weren’t able to. Somehow life had gotten in the way. In those 9 years, Jesse has written a book that is about their encounter. He is now at the last stop of his book tour, in Paris. As he hopes that she would, she comes to his book signing.
When she does show-up, they decided to spend Jesse’s last hours in the city together. They are both happy to see each other. So much has happened and they are more than eager to catch up. But since they are older, they seem weary of life, the heart-breaks and disapponitments they have gone through. They realize the connection is still there 9 years later. But now, things seem harder than ever. Jesse is i unhappily married with a 4-year-old kid. Celine’s hear doesn’t seem to be in the relationship she is having. Both have to face their feelings and they realize that the best time, and the best romance they had was 9 years ago,with each other,in Vienna…

It is fun,romantic,sad,heart-breaking,emotional,hopeful…It just leaves you feeling with a combination of a variety of feelings. You feel alive. Once again, it is just so easy to find yourself in Jesse and Celine. And you just cross fingers that this time they will stay together.

Is it as magical as the second movie? It depends. They were younger ,more romantic and more hopeful. They mention this in the second movie. They have grown up.We, the audience,have grown up. We have had more disappointments,heart-breaks,more journeys…We might have become more realistic and/or cynical. But the true spirit of the movie-that genuine honesty-is still the core here. Of course the romantic fool in me wished that they had met after six months. I wish that they had gotten together,stayed together,remained in love…But they didn’t. Life happened and they let life take its toll on them; on their beliefs,way of thinking. But at the same time, they didn’t change all that much. As Celine mentions in the movie, we don’t really change that much. No matter what self-defense mechanisms we develop, our hopes and dreams stay the same. So being together again just feels so right for them. It seems together that 9 years have passed.

The movie has been written by Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. Hence the actors have co-written the screenplay, it is even easier for them to become to be Jesse and Celine. As I said, if you have seen the first one, you owe it yourself to see this. If you haven’t seen it, than go and just find Before Sunrise. I am still looking for a movie that will make me feel the same way these two did.