It starts... wonderfully - Michael Caine with his usual magnetic pull,the female lead looking perfect for her character. It all seems to be heading in the right direction until... they talk. Michael Caine's character should have been simply - a British character. His accent is far to thick and too distinctive to be covered-over by any other accent. Throughout the film Michael isn't sure if he is an American or a Brit and and one point goes to Texas and back. The man is a legend, surely when filming him at the time, the director and screenplay writer (same person) should have been frowning at herself for making this icon of the screen take us on a world tour of English, ruining his amazing facial and body movements. A quick rewrite as a Brit, the character would have been perfect. Now... as for the female lead. Where to begin? Her accent is even more country-less. Is she French, English, American or even oddly Scots/Irish? I could hear all of these accents at some point in the film. Again, is the director deaf or just reading her script without actually hearing it? To set a film in such a prominent location as Paris, characters need to be absolutely established as to who they are and where they come from. The main female character is apparently French but she speaks 80% of the time with a British accent. You could argue the character **spoiler** has a father that was British and maybe she had grown up there? No... Michael Caine's character often corrects her English - so we have a girl with an English accent that can't actually speak basic English?? It turned me off. I am a voice artist/impressionist, anyone like me that is annoyed by bad accents, avoid this film. ;-) On to the overall plot: It gets messy. Other characters simply get in the way of the main purpose of the story. Gillian Anderson appears like she's in a flash-back to the X-Files... Serving no purpose in the room or as a character, talking, blah blah then a few serious looks is gone as soon as she arrived.
Generally, Michael Caine was too big for this film to handle. As another reviewer says: "Soap Opera" - I wholeheartedly agree. This could have been far, far better. The ending is irritating and does not conclude the characters in a satisfactory way at all.
Disappointed.
Generally, Michael Caine was too big for this film to handle. As another reviewer says: "Soap Opera" - I wholeheartedly agree. This could have been far, far better. The ending is irritating and does not conclude the characters in a satisfactory way at all.
Disappointed.