Julie Delpy is a rare triple threat, equally talented as a writer, director, and actor. And she’s bilingual, too. Such an overachiever! Her romantic comedy 2 Days in Paris is an engaging and witty escape to the City of Lights. Though it’s slightly tarnished by an overreliance on Woody Allen tropes, it’s still a lot of fun. And Paris always looks so good on film.

At 35 years old, Marion (Delpy) and Jack (Adam Goldberg) are at that stage of their two-year relationship when they’re wondering what’s next. A two-week vacation in Venice has not turned out well, and before they return to New York, they stop off in Paris, Marion’s hometown, so Jack can meet the parents and Marion can reconnect with her Parisian friends.
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The witty, natural dialogue in Julie Delpy’s “2 Days in Paris” takes it beyond its simple boy-meets-girl, boy-meets-girl’s crazy parents, boy-meets-girl’s disturbing number of old boyfriends, plot. Without the superior script by writer/director/star Delpy, who also starred in and co-wrote “Before Sunset” with Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater, this film is just “Meet the Parents” set in Paris.

However, the rapport between Delpy and costar Adam Goldberg is terrific to watch. He is hilarious as Jack, a foul-tempered, preening New York interior designer, recoiling from dubious European hygiene and cooking. He spends most of the film fuming while his girlfriend Marion (Delpy) says things he can’t understand to a parade of ex-lovers, with only their warm body language to guide him to unsavory conclusions that are not unfounded.

The highlight of all of this, however, is the wonderful scenes at Delpy’s home with her parents, played by her actual parents. Perhaps, as a filmmaker, this is cheating; nevertheless, it is great fun. Whether gorging himself on rabbit, with bits flying from his mouth with every syllable, or showing off his gleefully dirty artwork, her father exhibits a joie de vivre that is just revolting enough to be funny. Meanwhile, her mother shyly admits to an affair with Jim Morrison.

The hilarious scenes at home set the stage for the romantic drama that unfolds as the lovers attempt to relax for their two-day visit. Having witnessed the loose and lusty practices in which his girlfriend was brought up, Goldberg becomes increasingly uneasy as he meets ex after ex, each exhibiting a French openness about sex, particularly with regards to Marion.

As their vacation deteriorates, Delpy relies on somewhat hasty voiceover to tie things up. The film ran out of steam towards the end, with Delpy seemingly unable to muster the imagination she brought to creating her characters when dealing out their fates. She even almost alludes to the fact that all love stories end the same when trying to end hers. Nevertheless, the individual performances by Delpy and her gang make this an individual film, even when it cops out and follows its own rules.

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It starts badly. Jack refuses to take the Metro for fear of terrorists, and his hypochondria is acting up again. Nonetheless, he brightens for a moment at the chance to give misleading directions to some fellow Americans looking for the Louvre, their next stop on the Da Vinci Trail.

Welcome to Julie Delpy’s Paris. Delpy wrote, directed and stars in 2 Days In Paris with Adam Goldberg as Jack, her lover, the kind of lugubrious New Yorker who lends incontrovertible proof to the theory that Jerry Seinfeld and Woody Allen have never had to invent a thing.

But Delpy’s Marion loves him, partly because his cynicism speaks directly to her own. Marion is a great creation, who would probably be slightly bored by Celine, the rather earnest character she played in Richard Linklater’s Paris romances Before Sunrise and Before Sunset.
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Julie Delpy produces, writes, edits, directs, composes and stars in 2 Days in Paris, an amazing accomplishment for any person. Because the entire fate rests on the shoulders of just one person, these types of films have a tendency to either bomb or totally succeed.

Thankfully, 2 Days in Paris is an outstanding achievement. It is at once personal and universal and a cinematic wonder. The movie tells the story of Jack (Adam Goldberg) and Marion (Delpy), a modern, educated couple that are bitterly sarcastic, have no intentions of ever having children but are completely in love. They are just returning from Venice and have planned to stay with Marion’s parents in Paris for two days before returning to New York.

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“2 DAYS IN PARIS” with Julie Delpy, Adam Goldberg, Albert Delpy and Marie Pillet. Rated R (for language, some sexual content and nudity). Running time: 1 hour, 36 minutes.

3 Stars

Thoroughly amusing, at times annoying and often hilarious are three ways to describe the French actress Julie Delpy’s film “2 Days in Paris.”

One thing it definitely does is accurately capture that point when a couple really start getting on each other’s nerves.

The entrancing star of Richard Linklater’s City of Lights art-house fave “Before Sunset” wrote, directed, stars in, edited, co-produced, wrote the score for and even sings a song for her movie, which also stars her real-life parents, both professional actors.

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