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Review: Finding Love (and Slapstick) While ‘Lost in Paris’

From left, Dominique Abel, Emmanuelle Riva and Fiona Gordon in “Lost in Paris.”Credit...Oscilloscope
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.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section C, Page 7 of the New York edition with the headline: Lost in Paris. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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