O Enigma Chinês

This film tells the story of a French man who moves to New York because his ex partner takes their two children there and remarry an American man.

The premise of the film is very interesting, as I haven't thought about how globalised we are. I've been taking weekend overseas breaks for granted, watching foreign films, listening to foreign songs, keeping on touch with foreign friends with much ease. And the film reminds us that life back then was not as complicated. The comedy aspect is done quite well, especially the immigration inspection scene which is quite funny. However, the film takes a long time to reach that comedy stage, and actually the first half of the film is rather boring. One thing I'm truly impressed by is Audrey Tautou's pronunciation of Mandarin Chinese. It's very clear that she took a lot of effort in learning the words, because she even got the tones of every character right!

I haven't seen the two previous movies by the same director and actors preceding this one, but all by itself I loved this one. It is funny, witty, interesting and unusual. I understand the previous two movies portrayed the lives of characters at an earlier age. Now they are around 40 years of age, they are in NYC and they have different set of problems. I participated in a Q&A with the director at the end of the movie and I understand what he is trying to portray is a generation of people who are more mobile, who aren't afraid of mixing with different cultures, live in different countries, deal with the challenges presented by this new country. Movie has a very very positive, upbeat look at things. And it is very refreshing to have this positive outlook considering how many movies feeds of drama and difficulties almost to a degree, which makes them unrealistic. Life is not so bad and things don't go that bad in real life. You might get lucky at things. This movie has a positive, realistic look at life. I could easily relate to it. Loved it, highly recommend it. Especially if you want to laugh a bit and feel good about life. And there is nothing wrong with that.

CASSE-TETE CHINOIS (Chinese Puzzle, 2013) is the third film in Cédrich Klapisch's series on globalization and growing older. It began with L'Auberge espagnole, which saw Xavier Rousseau (Romain Duris), a 25 year-old university student and aspiring writer, spending a wild year in Barcelona with other exchange students from throughout Europe. The second film Les poupées russes revisited Xavier as he turns 30 and has still not established a writing career or found a stable relationship. Its happy ending with Xavier settling down with former Erasmus companion Wendy (Kelly Reilly) seemed to augur well for the future.

But as Casse-Tete Chinois opens, we find that Xavier's relationship with Wendy collapsed ten years into their marriage. Wendy has left Paris for New York, where she has met another man, and takes their two children with her. Xavier follows them to New York to be closer to his children, but Wendy has turned cold and hostile. His lesbian pal Isabelle (Cécile de France) is also there, and Xavier has helped her and her lover have a child. On the threshold of 40, Xavier finds that his life is just as complicated as ever. The film follows Xavier adjusting to a new life in the United States, searching for a flat and a job, and dealing with a bitter custody battle. With all this on his plate, his old ex Martine (Andrey Tatou), now a import-export businesswoman dealing with organic products, drops in with her two children too.

In commenting on this series of films, Cédric Klapisch has said that he wants to capture the fact that Xavier's and younger generations are very mobile, and for them it's commonplace to go to another country to work/study or enter into a relationship with someone of a different nationality. Here this mobility is explored through several French people in New York, and New York with its wealth and myriad immigrant communities is treated as a very distinct place from the United States in general. Nothing at all is seen or heard of the Spanish flatmates from the first film, who at least got a bit part in the second film. I think that's rather a shame, we could have at least got a few lines of dialogue about how William (Kevin Bishop), whose marriage to a Russian woman was the whole setup for the second film, is getting on.

I enjoyed revisiting some of these characters again after nearly a decade, and Duris's acting is admirable: his Xavier remains the manchild we know and love, but he captures the impact of the years. Cécile de France is again so convincing in her role that one wonders if she really is like this in real life. The script, however, strikes me as rather weak. There's a strange side plot of adultery, where a character appallingly cheats on their lover and the other characters hardly object, and it ends up with almost the exact same scene of everyone racing to an apartment to warn the trysting pair as in the first film.

Still, the series as a whole remains worth seeing and an important commentary on the contemporary world. I hope Klapisch will continue Xavier's story in a few more years.

It is the third and final movie of the 'Spanish Apartment' trilogy. The story of a middle aged father and his care for his children make him to pick a challenged life ahead. The initial parts were very slow, I feel you need to be a patience. While progressing, the story development turns to be a gripping. Afterwards it gets bigger with introducing more characters and that makes a widely open story that can travel any direction. That mean definitely not easy to predict the end. I am glad that I saw it and you should not miss this trilogy, one of the best drama-romedy series ever told.

The 40 years old divorced Xavier aim to follow his ex path to the New York to be staying close to his children. He makes it and one of his old friends who has settled in New York helps him to find an apartment. He finds a decent job and having everything going stable, his ex allows to share the his part being a parent. The time and days moving rapidly, the trouble approaches him because his stay is limited as he came on a tourist visa. His trouble doubles and he must overcome soon with a solution. Besides, reuniting with his other old friend and affair are the other side of the tale that uncovers.

''Those tiny initials in the sidewalk held a kind of fundamental proof that my birth wasn't a total accident.''

Once again the director's favorite actor Roman Duris appeared for a wonderful role and he did not disappoint. He is one of my favorites from French films, maybe because I liked most of his movies. His performance was amazing like always and definitely he was the center of attraction in this film. It was about the three things, being a father, immigrant and kind of love rectangle. As he (Roman Duris) was divorced, but being a father of two young children his responsibility is to give them love and care. Especially not to discard them like his father did for him. So he's ready to give up anything in the world. The love rectangle was not exactly a fight over each other. It was cleverly briefed, very modern with the understanding kind of relationship. This is what the movie impresses very much, the shuffled characters with one man at the center.

The last 20-25 minutes was so good, the pace accelerates along the crucial portions which gives thrilling pleasure. My rating varied from the lower to the higher while watching this movie in each section till it went to the last part. So felt keeping calm all the way paid off with a great pleasure. I have seen few French movies of 2013 and this one is one of the best. It was about everything, like, a little meaningful about being a parent, humors, thrill scenes, finding love and affections, friendship. And again, I am saying that it is worth a lot to try at once.

It's very watchable and, at 7/10, a definite, must watch for people who like gentle human comedy. It loses on an 8+ score from being slightly disjointed.

For those that have seen the previous movies this will definitely be an 8+, though ...

For starters, Audrey Tautou finally appears for more than 5 minutes. Raomin is, at last, not cast as a brainlessly immature asshole - even though he remains a zanily unpredictable persona. Jill, erm Kelly, actually comes across as if she almost finally grew up. And Ju is as adorable as ever as the eternal mother figure.

Humorous sarcasm aside, this film has all the qualities of its predecessors in being utterly human in its portrayals of the characters and wittily, if somewhat cynically, insightful in its portrayal of their circumstances.

If you want to watch a film that makes you more inclined to like humanity than to hate it, then you will smile your way through this one.