Director
Cédric Klapisch
Cast
Romain Duris”¦”¦”¦.Xavier Rousseau
Kelly Reilly”¦”¦”¦.Wendy
Audrey Tautou”¦”¦”¦.Martine
Cécile De France”¦”¦”¦.Isabelle
Kevin Bishop”¦”¦”¦.William
Evguenya Obraztsova”¦”¦”¦.Natacha
DVD Release Date: September 9, 2006
Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 129 minutes
The Movie
In this great big world full of people, we are just like animals in that we are always looking for a mate. We are always looking for that special someone. There are some of us who can find that perfect person and just be happy forever. Then there are those who have to look for years before being content. Then there are those, especially more men, who just want to keep playing and playing. And that may be interesting to learn about”¦if we didn’t already know it.
It’s been five years since a group of friends lived together in Barcelona for a summer, and now they are reunited in various ways as Xavier works his way through women, women, and more women. The event to bring them all together is Wendy’s brother William making another quick decision and marrying the Russian ballerina Natacha in St. Petersburg.
The wedding is a big portion of the film, but the story focuses on Xavier and his different escapades with women all over Paris and London. He rekindles his on again, off again fling with Martine, and then moves in with his lesbian friend Isabelle. While Xavier works for a Russian soap opera and writes the rare article for a newspaper or magazine, his little flings and the wedding of his friend make him think he may want more certainty in his life.
An obvious story of love and the different ways to get there is what Dolls stretches out in every possible way: dating, love at first sight, sleeping around, just waiting for it to happen, etc”¦ William and Natacha have a very sweet story of love and how much they care for each other, but the torment Xavier seems to feel inside, as he was having fun using women, kind of takes a bit of it’s focus. There are times we see where he meets the women. For instance, while shopping for women’s clothes, the clerk makes a nice target for him. Other times, it’s simple ten second clips of the mornings after. But as he begins to realize there’s more to life, it’s almost as if Klapisch wants us to feel sorry for Xavier since he’s so “lonely.”
The movie really doesn’t have too much going for it more then the occasional funny line here, and the sporadic nudity there. There’s a bit of eye candy to be had walking around, but the involvement in the movie just isn’t there to be paid attention to. It jumps around sometimes and scenes end so quickly that you aren’t sure what just happened or what’s going on now. There are flashbacks, made up situations, and then present time to pay attention to but”¦nothing is interesting enough combined or alone to care about. The biggest thing I kept wondering is how a guy that looks like Xavier can get as much action as he is getting. Where does that possibly happen?
The Video
The film is shown in 4:3 letterbox presented in a “matted” widescreen format. The colors are vibrant and the picture looks very good. It doesn’t help though that the subtitles look like they were put up on the screen by a Speak N Spell.
The Audio
The film is heard in Dolby Digital 5.1 Français with English subtitles. The music is good at times, but that’s about all. As with few films, you can’t help but notice the subtitles. In good movies with subtitles, you end up reading them while still being able to pay attention to the action. Here you end up only wanting to pay attention to one or the other.
Special Features
The Making Of Russian Dolls – Some normal behind the scenes stuff that you see in every “making of.” Interviews with the cast talking about their characters and some green screen work fill out the rest. A “making of” featurette to a boring film is going to be just as boring, and it is.
Trailers Before The Film
The Inside Pulse
I’ve never seen the first film, Auberge espagnole, L’, and after watching the sequel”¦I’m not so sure I want to. Dolls tries to keep a young, vibrant, excited feeling about the world of dating and the essence of love; but all it does is make me realize these are a bunch of 30-somethings who just can’t move on. Not to mention that it just runs way too long at over two hours when it needed no more then 90 minutes. With virtually no special features (make that ONE special feature), you may want to try a rental if you’ve seen the first one. If not, I think you can find better ways to spend your time doing almost”¦well, anything.
