2 Days in Paris

Having done well by co-writing and starring in Richard Linklater’s Before Sunset, the quirkily radiant French actress Julie Delpy takes shrewd ownership of her appeal to American audiences: writing, directing and starring in yet another talky date-movie diversion about a young couple roaming Paris. It’s not as good or as special as a Linklater film, and some of its banter falls embarrassingly flat, like a warmed-over Woody Allen film, but at times it is a real charmer. Delpy’s character narrates the experience of bringing her American lover (Adam Goldberg, in fine form) home to meet the parents—and, to his dismay, a few hovering exes as well. There’s courage in how the two leads seem alternately sympathetic and irritating: She’s sometimes ingratiatingly cutesy and arguably loose; he’s a whining, insecure hypochondriac. But it’s believable enough that from the balance they achieve—her depth of feeling, his acrid humor—a real, intimate love has bloomed.