Décalage horaire

This delicious, light, romantic comedy is full of surprises and subtleties.

Witfully written and superbly acted, it shows why Juliette Binoche is such a great asset to modern cinema. Outstanding chemistry with Reno makes this theatrical play made into a movie a rewarding experience to be treasured. Juliette Binoche shows her talent in a totally different role to most of the ones she has played before, she is a common girl with many problems and yet her nobility and class shine through. If you like Binoche you will love Jet lag. Don't miss it.

Danièle Thompson, daughter of the famous producer Gérard Oury, wrote this comedy with her son Christopher. So making movies and writing scripts is apparently a family-mark. She was also director of this surprising comedy with a bit of a "Lubitsch"-touch and in the atmosphere of the movies of Claude Lelouch but with a high profiled own personality. Rose (Juliette Binoche) and Felix (Jean Reno) are characters that only could come out of the imagination of a woman. Their dialogues are well fit to their personality. Rose is a woman who is looking for real love and Felix is so busy that he has no time to even think of it. The circumstances at the airport will give them the time to know and appreciate each other. The movie shows how fate can put people together who normally never speak with each other.

French films are characterized by dialog and this film is no exception. The setting is clever - not really a modern adaptation of The VIP's, but on that order (and more down to earth). The situation is funny and, in the cell phone era, one to which we might all relate. (Of course, I assume not many people lose their cell phones à la Juliette Binoche.)

A fan of both Binoche and Reno, I find both charming and the chemistry between them very real. Binoche's beautician is also far more interesting, and less stereotypified, than American film portrayals (Fran Drescher, Dolly Parton, Jennifer Coolidge...)

Not one of the great French films by any means, but I still give this one 8/10.

Forget Meg Ryan, forget Julia Roberts...This is romantic comedy at its best! Juliette Binoche and Jean Reno are outstanding. The plot is more than original and, better, convincing. I fell in love with the story but even more with the characters and their lives. Nothing in them seems "plastic". Although one knows that the end will be a happy one, the plot is so convincing that the end does not come as if was predicted. Each scene is so natural and revealing that it keeps you asking for more. I seriously do not understand the poor reviews it has gotten here. Could it be a little bit of jealousy because it is a foreign film from a country with no tradition in this genre but that nonetheless achieves what most American romantic comedies don't? I cannot explain it otherwise.

"Décalage Horaire" or "Jet Lag" premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2002.

Danielle Thompson's "Decalage Horaire" is a simple, yet not necessarily simplistic, ode to love. The story concerns two opposites who meet at Charles de Gaulle Airport during a strike. They are constantly thrown together by fate ending up spending a night together (sex does not enter the equation) and during the course of their wait realising they have more in common than they thought.

Félix (Jean Reno) is a French man living in the US. He is chasing after a woman he belives he still loves. Rose (Juliette Binoche) is a Beautician who has a one-way ticket to Mexico, she is desperately running away from a man she no longer loves.

As Félix, Reno gives a sullen performance as a man on the edge, caught between the chronic boredom of his life and the disappointment of a failed romance. His chemistry with Binoche is magnetic, and surprising, it's so much stronger than the Binoche-Depp pairing of Chocolat.

The revelation of the film however is Juliette Binoche' terrific turn as Rose. The beautician who hides behind a mask of colouful makeup and only becomes truly beautiful the day she removes it.

Binoche in her first successful comic role (in Chocolat afterall she was a more tragic figure) succeeds in creating a wonderfully funny and charming young woman, with an endearingly vunerable side. Time after time Reno feeds her the lines and she returns with the best moments of the film. Two parts which stand out are when Felix assumes Rose is a prostitute and when she discusses her make-up routine with him. Binoche will probably be César nominated for her role, and because this is such a change in direction for her she may even win.

The best thing about "Décalage Horaire" is that it is not merely sentimental, it's ironic tone is winning and much more interesting. Thompson's assured directon shows signs of maturity since "La buche", while her writing is as astute as ever.

The ending in mexico to the strains of Macy Gray's redoubtable "I try" is a memorable ending, for it's immediacy and it's pure sheer pleasure.

Viva la Binoche!