A Poucos Passos de Paris

The return of a character to their hometown and their settling their accounts with those left behind is reminiscent of a model of the genre, "Un Revenant", by Christian Jaque (1946). A woman revisiting her old flames recalls another great film, Julien Duvivier's "Carnet de bal" (1937). "A 2 heures de Paris", the first theatrical feature by Virginie Verrier (who also produced and wrote the screenplay) is a distant cousin of these two memorable works but certainly gains nothing by being judged against them. This modern "revenant turning the pages of her old dance card" will certainly not survive oblivion the way the two classics mentioned do. For sure, Sidonie, an air hostess in her early thirties, comes and sows disorder and conflict in the small Somme Bay town which she left at the age of 16, but the score-settling lacks relevance and sharpness. Agreed, the rebellious heroine kicks over the traces but she does not really rock the boat. Her revolt sounds hollow and accordingly the film soon gives the feeling to be running on empty. I have just called Sidonie the heroine, which she is but which, in this writer's eyes, she should not be. She has indeed a fifteen-year-old daughter, Lolo, born of an unknown father. And if, after all, Sido finds herself in her hometown, it is at her request. Brought up by her single mother, Lolo has indeed reached the age where she would like to know who her biological father is.Which means that without her, Sidonie would never have returned to the small town where she once "fell into sin". From such premises, one could reasonably expect rich exchanges between the thirty-something and her teenage offspring.This is not the case as Virginie Verrier gradually forgets about Lolo in favor of her "righter of wrongs" progenitor, and that's a shame. There lies the general problem : the writer-director struggles to make the most of a story and of characters yet full of possibilities. Likewise, she does not particularly highlight the beautiful region of the Bay of the Somme, which she films in a rather impersonal way. Nor does she sufficiently flesh out the characters of the local inhabitants. Even worse, she treats them without benevolence, like hillbillies who have not been able to extricate themselves from the mediocrity of their dead loss. Just like her heroine, she considers them from the height of her Parisianism. But if her characters are indeed mired in a sterile immobility, in what way is this vituperative "free woman" superior to them? What does she do that is particularly interesting in her life apart from flying from one stopover to another and flirting around with men? This is the big weak point of this film, which on the other hand is rather well made and can be followed without boredom. But if you miss out on "A 2 heures de Paris" the loss will not be very great.