Russian Dolls

Synopsis: Five years on, a group of international students who had lived in Barcelona is reuniting for William's wedding in St Petersburg. At their forefront is Xavier (Romain Duris), trying to make writing his career and lurching from woman to woman in attempt to find Ms Perfect but not really ready to commit.

This is the sequel to Klapisch's 2003 film The Spanish Apartment, although there's no need to have seen the first one to be able to thoroughly enjoy this zany romp. The old favourites are back - Audrey Tautou is Martine, Xavier's ex-flame and now a single mother, Cécile de France is Isabelle, gay and womanising, Kelly Reilly is the sweet-natured Wendy, who could well be "the one", but is far too honest for Xavier, and William (Kevin Bishop) is tying the knot with a Russian ballerina. New to the mix is the character of Celia (Lucy Gordon), a long-legged supermodel and every man's lustful daydream. She is definitely the one to throw a spoke in the wheels of the developing attraction between Wendy and Xavier!  Xavier is the classic non-committing male, known only too well to many woman who will relate with a sigh of recognition.

The style of film-making reflects the craziness of Xavier's life. From the opening credits it resembles a fast-paced video clip, with split screens, multitudinous images, an up-beat sound track and a plot line that leaps all over the place with Xavier voice-overing his reminiscences of the past year which led up to him being in Russia. Much use is made of a fast train which thunders between Paris and London, carrying Xavier from Wendy's place, where, with her, he is co-writing a TV romance script, to secret assignations back in Paris. As he writes the script, he realises he really doesn't know a hell of a lot about love and real life, and that maturity means learning that bad choices carry consequences.

Duris is barely off the screen - the entire film swirls frenetically around him, and he carries it exceptionally well, with a strong presence and a good comic edge in contrast to his normal broody intensity. The scenes between him and Wendy work very well with a real sense of budding romance and Reilly exudes a gorgeous naturalness that makes her character so accessible. De France is also impressive as the strong-minded Isabelle, who, while disapproving of Xavier's life, herself does a fair bit of screwing around.

My one reservation with this film is that it tries to cram too much in. At times it becomes just too frenetic and I found the juggling of time sequences an unnecessary device. However, there is fun a-plenty, and anyone who's survived their thirties will certainly find plenty to relate to in their own lives.

FYI: Look out for the line near the end which explains the film's title. It's not what you would at first imagine and is rather clever.

 

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