French Kiss

Don't ever say all writers are hacks. The writer of French Kiss, sitting next to Kline on the plane, has done a job from a perspective most people will not catch, and you have to give him credit for doing it. I am fairly sure both Ryan, Kline, Reno and the rest were aware of what was going on, but I am equally sure this flew totally over the heads of 99% of the US audiences. For this movie, amongst other things, is a sometimes not so subtle and other times very subtle cut-up on US tourists in Europe.

There are so many scenes which have this double entendre - if you get them it's hilarious and heart-warming, if you don't get them, then explaining them will help nothing and serve only to enervate the narrator.

And the puns - I've witnessed people seeing this movie over and over and over and not getting them. After half a dozen viewings they suddenly go 'ah' and get it. This is good screen writing.

Kline's Parisian sounds spot on. Suspicion is he was coached - and excellently - in the unique 'gutter' accent found in the city of light.

This film has everything. It's not your classical 'meets cute' but - where does one begin? Can one ever end?

This mini-review has gone on for several hundred words already and the iteration has not started.

Get it!

A truly funny piece. It's the one we get out of our collection when we just want to sit down and watch something familiar, funny and just NICE.

Meg Ryan reveals herself as a true comedienne and Kevin Kline is the funniest Frenchman you ever loved to hate. So what if we know exactly what's going to happen? That's the way with romantic comedies, as it is with most 'genre' movies. Even after having seen it at least a dozen times, we still laugh when Ryan sneaks up on her absconded fiancee and his new girlfriend and in the process causes major havoc in a posh French cafe; or when Kevin Kline tells her how the uptight nature of the Americans makes his 'ass twitch'.

To begin with, Meg Ryan's fear of flying and the procedures she goes through to deal with it are cute. And the relationship with Meg and Timothy Hutton is entirely believable.

Once she is on the plane, going to Paris, Kevin Kline appears and introduces himself and distracts her from the takeoff. Kevin Kline really proves himself in this movie, or at least shows how good he is at accents. I was a French major in college and have been to Paris and seen much of France. His mannerisms are right on.

The things that happen once they are in Paris are 1) funny and 2) move the story along. The train trip that they have to take is another enjoyable section. And Meg learns that she really likes the cheese!

Once she sees the vineyard and begins to learn more about Kevin Kline's character, the story gets under way nicely. All in all, it's a very enjoyable time.

Along with several other friends, we spent 2 weeks in the south of France (Provence) in 1998, so this nice romantic comedy has an inside track to our affections. Ryan's fiancee (Tim Hutton), doctor, goes to France on business, later calls and says he has fallen for a French girl and isn't coming back. Ryan didn't go with him because of her fear of flying. However, this news gets her on the plane, she is resolved to win him back.

She becomes seated next to a typical rude Frenchman (Kline) on the plane, he is smuggling a grape vine and an expensive necklace into France, puts it is her knapsack to clear customs. They get separated at the airport, but he catches up with her at the hotel she told him she would be at. However, she fainted when she saw her finacee with the Frenchie, and her luggage and knapsack are stolen by a professional thief that Klein happens to know. He finds the thief, the knapsack, the grapevine, but no necklace. Ryan takes off for Nice and Cannes to find Hutton. Klein follows her.

She has lactose intolerance, eats too much cheese on the train, they have to stop in a small town, which happens to be Klein's hometown. They meet some relatives, he shows her his dream of his vineyard. In Cannes they meet up with Hutton, he is amazed at what a changed person she is, she realizes it was through knowing Klein that she grew out of her shell, the stolen necklace ends up around her neck, she turns it in to the police, gets her $45,000 life savings wired from home, gives it to Klein pretending it was from sale of the necklace to Cartier.

Since she was between foresaking her American citizenship and applying for Canadian citizenship, but her passport and papers were lost, and she is a woman without a nation, she stays in France with Klein. This movie confirms my opinion that Kevin Klein is perhaps the best comedic actor alive, and even sings the closing song, sounding much like maurice Chevalier. The reparte' between him and Ryan is just so much fun. Ryan plays basically the same character she usually does, typified by her role in "When Harry Met Sally", but she always does a fine job. This movie is so much fun, and so well done, I rate it "8" of 10.

This is a really cute little romantic comedy. The story revolves around a young history teacher, Kate, who's afraid of flying but forces herself to hop on a plane for Paris to try and win back her fiancé, Charlie, who has dumped her for a gorgeous French woman. However, her seat mate on the plane happens to be a charming French crook named Luc, who uses the unsuspecting Kate to smuggle his stolen diamond necklace for him. Then, casting himself as an expert in affairs of the heart, he resolves to help Kate win back her man, later complicated by the fact that he falls for her himself.

Their adventures across France, from Paris to Cannes, in pursuit of the fiancé and his new girlfriend, make for some pretty amusing scenes. The plot is livened up by the repercussions of Luc's larcenous tricks, little sub-plots with a fellow con artist and a cop who owes him a favour. My sole complaint with this movie is a couple of unnecessary f-words and a fair bit of profanity, especially on Kate's part (taking the Lord's name in vain), reflective of the screenwriters' laziness in avoiding clever dialogue in these scenes.

Meg Ryan is her usual cute, bubbly, rather ditsy self in the role of Kate and Timothy Hutton is suitably obnoxious and despicable as Charlie, the fiancé who dumped her. However, the real star of this film is Kevin Kline, who puts genuine charm into the role of this rakishly endearing thief, Luc, and demonstrates an extremely credible French accent, in my opinion. His entire persona here makes it difficult to believe that Kline isn't really French. He must have had a fantastic language coach! Also, there is great on screen chemistry between Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline.

It's a delightful, light hearted film, a good date movie, and not necessarily just a chick flick as my husband enjoyed it too.