Living in a Daydream

On tonight’s edition of “The Best of 120 Minutes” I thought that I’d pay homage to one of the great movies of the early 90’s, “Singles”. Starring Bridget Fonda, Matt Dillon, that chick who ended up marrying Kevin Bacon, and that guy who always looked like a complete tool in an examination of single life in Seattle. Movie is best known for its music with one of the main cuts being this track by the Screaming Trees. I’ve always liked this video as it showed how pretty much anyone could get a video made in those days. Seriously, it’s just a bunch of fat dudes playing guitar. Awesome song though.

Anyway, I went to see “2 Days in Paris” last night, the film that was written, directed, produced, edited, scored and starred by Julie Delpy. That’s not a joke according to the credits she did all of those things on this film. Now I’ll start off by saying that this will not be an impartial review. The first thing you see when you walk into my apartment is a poster for the movie “White”, which is basically just Julie lying in bed and looking seductive and quizzical at the same time. For about a decade my computer background has been pictures of Julie. So I am definitely a fan and maybe too intense of one at that.

Still, I was worried going into this film. This just screams of a vanity project gone wrong and even though she was nominated for an Oscar for being one of the writers on Before Sunset I wasn’t sure what the point of this film was. Especially as on the surface it seems to just be a retread of Before Sunrise/Sunset. A couple spends two days in Paris walking around and talking. I wasn’t sure if there would be anything of note or if it was just going to be disjointed as hell.

I have to say, I was really surprised by how good this film is. It is a definite three star film and a really nice romantic comedy. The plot is pretty straightforward, Julie and Adam Goldberg play a couple who have reached that two year point in their relationship and wonder what is next. They travel to Europe and end up in Paris for two days to meet and stay with Julie’s parents (played by Julie’s actual parents who both happen to be actors). Adam has to deal with language barriers, cultural barriers and the fact that everywhere he turns he seems to run into one of Julie’s ex-lovers.

It’s a very funny film. There is some universal humor of the absolute horror involved in meeting someone’s parents and knowing that there are references being made that you’ll never understand. Plus there is the American abroad aspect, which is done really well. Julie makes some beginning director mistakes (relying too much on narration) but it is a really well done film. It’s a definite rental, a good date movie and for someone like me it means about a thousand things more than that.

See, when I talked about meeting Kelly Willis I mentioned that she was #3 on my Perfect mate list. Well, Julie is #1 and has been on the list since I first made it in 1995. And for me, watching this movie is like discovering what it would be like to actually date Julie. I mean, it’s like “here’s what it would be like to meet her parents and have her dad quiz me on French literature.” Or “how would you react to having a high strung, neurotic girlfriend who will launch into someone in a language that you do not understand.” It’s literally like having one of my daydreams brought to life on screen and it is almost disconcerting to see. One of my goals is not to live a life of regret, where I wonder what could have been. This movie shows me what could have been even though there was never any possibility that this could ever happen. And that’s a lot to process while reading subtitles.

So, in the end this is a really fun film to see. Maybe more so for me than other people but it is still a good night out. Hell, just to see Julie wear black rimmed glasses is worth the ticket price. But again, maybe that is just me.

The five random CDs for the week:
1) Freedy Johnston “Never Home”
2) Sheryl Crow “Sheryl Crow”
3) Iris DeMent “Infamous Angel”
4) 10,000 Maniacs “Our Time In Eden”
5) Gillian Welch “Revival”