Paris Can Wait Diane Lane, Arnaud Viard, Alec Baldwin. Directed by Eleanor Coppola. Rated PG. Opens Friday at Green Valley Ranch, Town Square and Village Square.
At 80 years old, Eleanor Coppola has finally joined the family business, writing and directing her first narrative feature film, Paris Can Wait. The wife of director Francis Ford Coppola and mother of directors Sofia Coppola and Roman Coppola has worked in various capacities alongside her husband, including as co-director of the 1991 documentary Hearts of Darkness, about the troubled production of Apocalypse Now, but Paris Can Wait is all hers. The story clearly echoes Coppola’s life, with a main character who’s married to a powerful but somewhat distant movie producer, and whose accomplishments and interests all fall under his shadow.
That’s an intriguing setup for a personal story, but Coppola shies away from anything revealing, instead taking Anne (Diane Lane) on a languid road trip through France, where she soaks up beautiful sights and eats delicious food, while avoiding too much self-reflection. After parting ways with her workaholic husband Michael (Alec Baldwin) while he jets off to his latest film set, she meets up with Michael’s French business partner Jacques (Arnaud Viard) for what’s meant to be a quick drive to Paris, only to get swept up in Jacques’ enthusiasm for detours and digressions. There are hints of romance between the flirtatious Jacques and the reserved Anne, but Coppola hesitates to follow through with them, as if she’s afraid of sullying her main character’s reputation. The result is a movie that has the dramatic tension of a luxury catalog spread, and the look of one, too.
There are plenty of glossy shots of equally gorgeous meals and landscapes, and Jacques is like a human Travel + Leisure article with his facts about the French countryside. But that makes much of the dialogue hopelessly stilted, and even an actress as talented as Lane can’t make it sound natural. It’s heartening to see a veteran like Coppola make her own artistic statement after years working behind the scenes; it’s a shame, then, that Paris Can Wait has almost nothing worthwhile to say.
