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Review: Finding Love (and Slapstick) While ‘Lost in Paris’
- Lost in Paris
- Directed by Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon
- Comedy
- Not Rated
- 1h 23m
In “Lost in Paris,” the married directors and stars Fiona Gordon and Dominique Abel show a grace for physical comedy and pretzel-like pas de deux. If their fourth feature (their first three, including “L’Iceberg” and “The Fairy,” were directed with Bruno Romy) is mild by design, their style — equal parts Jacques Tati, Jerry Lewis, Wes Anderson and “Wallace & Gromit” — isn’t easy to pull off.
“Lost in Paris” begins in a snowy Canadian outpost, where Fiona (Ms. Gordon) receives a letter from Martha (Emmanuelle Riva, of “Amour,” who died in January), an aunt who left for Paris decades earlier. Martha is 88 and a bit daffy. (She’s shown putting the letter in the trash instead of a mailbox in a Mr. Magoo-style mishap. It’s later rescued.)
Fiona decides to pay Martha a visit, bringing luggage more suited to mountaineering than a Parisian getaway. The luggage eventually makes its way to Dom (Mr. Abel), a hobo who is dashing enough to charm Fiona at a riverboat restaurant.
Most of the pleasures of “Lost in Paris” come from watching the coincidences multiply as Fiona, Dom and Martha narrowly miss one another. There is a case of mistaken identity at a funeral and a bit of acrobatic derring-do on the Eiffel Tower. In one sweet interlude, Ms. Riva and Pierre Richard (playing Martha’s former lover) perform dance steps while seated on a bench, accentuated by close-ups of the pair’s shoes.
“Lost in Paris” grows a bit tiresome at feature length, but it’s a winning divertissement.
Not rated. In English and French, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 24 minutes.
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