Review: Paris

***½ / *****

"Paris. No one's ever happy. We grumble. We enjoy that."

A sort of cinematic tourist brochure, Cédric Klapisch's Paris had all the potential to be a spiritual follow-up to the fabulous Paris, je t'aime. Unfortunately, it feels a bit uneven. Still, considering how much I adore that film, I think my expectations were a little too high. Klapisch (the French auteur whose previous L'Auberge Espagnole remains one of my favourite films) still crafts a heart-warming exploration of the lives, loves and neighbourhoods of the City of Lights. Or, more appropriately, that romantic Paris of our imagination.

Opening with a head-spinning montage of its main players, we meet Romain Duris in the role of Pierre, a cabaret dancer awaiting heart surgery. Juliette Binoche plays Élise, his social-worker sister who moves in to care for him. There's also the aging and cynical History professor Roland, played by Fabrice Luchini, who falls in love with one of his students, the tempestuous Laetitia (Mélanie Laurent, who'll be seen soon in Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds) and an assortment of working-class Parisians falling in and out of amour.

As the film plays out the lives and locales of these people become intertwined, often tenuously, although Klapisch has the good sense not to force the point. And the film is as much about Paris' neighbourhoods as its protagonists: we visit the beautiful Sacré-Coeur, Père Lachaise, the Eiffel Tower and numerous other iconic locations. We also travel to lesser-known districts, including Rungis, a colossal market of fruit crates and meat carcasses. Even these blue-collar suburbs are bathed in a deceptively warm glow by cinematographer Christophe Beaucar.

While the entire cast performs admirably, the film's stand-out performance comes from Duris, who gives Paris its emotional heart. He also acts as our tour guide, observing goings-on from the window of his apartment. "I watch other people live. I wonder who they are, where they go. They become heroes in my little stories," his character says at one point. Binoche is her usual great-self and she even has a little, subtle striptease scene in which she's as gorgeous and sexy as she was twenty years ago.

As is the nature of any multi-character cavalcade, the film suffers from a lack of exposition. Characters are introduced and just as quickly dropped. A plot line regarding a Cameroonian's attempt to illegally make his way to France shows great potential, but is frustratingly underdeveloped. Fortunately, Duris is there as the film's glue, pulling the picture back together whenever it threatens to fall apart. While it might lack a certain emotional gravitas, Paris is nonetheless a light-hearted and satisfying ode to the City of Love.