I often wonder if directors sometimes tire of the boxes they find themselves put in. Chantal Akerman, who at the tender age of 25 delivered up the masterpiece Jeanne Dielman which not only changed the face of cinema but forever assured her place among other cinematic auteurs, once referred to herself as being funny like Charlie Chaplin. I guess she tired of simply saying it and decided to actually try it out. Unfortunately the result is not that great.
The premise of the film is actually quite promising and suits the genre perfectly. A cold clinical psychoanalyst is overwhelmed by the neediness of his patients and decides to house swap. The person who answers his ad is a young dancer. She is all youth, exuberance and mess. He is cold, clean, calculated. While he can't get comfortable in her apartment she gets all too comfortable in his; when a patient mistakenly assumes she is the analyst's replacement she ends up rolling with it.
The movie isn't the greatest, there is some awkward editing that seems to be the result of scenes missing. There's also the fact that for a romantic comedy the comedy of the film never really soars. Binoche and Hurt do well enough with their characters, but they don't have the sort of magic chemistry that could have made this film really work. Also, perhaps the strangest bit of all, for being the work of such an acclaimed director it seems curiously stripped of nearly all the traits that made Akerman, Akerman. It feels like the kind of forgettable movie you would find flipping through the channels late at night. If it wasn't for the fact that this was an Akerman film and that the stars are very notable as well this would be a completely forgotten film, one of dozens of rom coms that got pumped out by studios in the 90s.
Pleasant enough to watch but very forgettable.
The premise of the film is actually quite promising and suits the genre perfectly. A cold clinical psychoanalyst is overwhelmed by the neediness of his patients and decides to house swap. The person who answers his ad is a young dancer. She is all youth, exuberance and mess. He is cold, clean, calculated. While he can't get comfortable in her apartment she gets all too comfortable in his; when a patient mistakenly assumes she is the analyst's replacement she ends up rolling with it.
The movie isn't the greatest, there is some awkward editing that seems to be the result of scenes missing. There's also the fact that for a romantic comedy the comedy of the film never really soars. Binoche and Hurt do well enough with their characters, but they don't have the sort of magic chemistry that could have made this film really work. Also, perhaps the strangest bit of all, for being the work of such an acclaimed director it seems curiously stripped of nearly all the traits that made Akerman, Akerman. It feels like the kind of forgettable movie you would find flipping through the channels late at night. If it wasn't for the fact that this was an Akerman film and that the stars are very notable as well this would be a completely forgotten film, one of dozens of rom coms that got pumped out by studios in the 90s.
Pleasant enough to watch but very forgettable.