macrobin-99085
This is one of the worst movies I've ever watched and I'll never get those hours back. If this is what Simon's work is like, he needs to stick to just acting and playing the piano, which he does best. Really crappy movie!
lavatch
"We'll Never Have Paris" was aspiring to be an old-fashioned romantic comedy that is often called "screwball" comedy. Unfortunately, the film wasn't funny, and the main problem was the lack of chemistry between the two romantic leads.From the outset, Quinn and Devon seemed completely incompatible. He was a shy jazz musician and florist. She was a university professor. Quinn's main problem was getting up the gumption to propose to Devon. They were high school sweethearts who have now lived together for years. Yet through it all, they apparently have never discussed the topic of marriage. The filmmakers fail to squeeze any comic mileage out of this stupid situation.The film begins with Quinn being diagnosed with an eye condition. But Quinn's problems go well beyond his eyes. He is a terrible communicator and is always putting his foot in his mouth. As Devon observes, "Your idea of self-deprecation is everybody else's idea of narcissism." Apart from Devon's snappy line above, the dialogue was not very humorous. There was even a tacky joke made about 9/11. Devon's love of Flaubert and sophisticated culture made her a perfect fit for the French violinist Guillaume, whom she meets in Paris. The characters in this film were poorly developed, serving as placeholders rather than actual human beings. For example, in Quinn's brief romance with Kelsey, it was never clear what exactly Kelsey, Quinn's co-worker in the flower shop, ever saw in Quinn to try to disrupt his relationship with Devon.Devon's attempt to escape to Paris is thwarted when Quinn follows her to try to "win her back." But was never clear how Quinn actually does win Devon back. There was no attempt to portray the aftermath of the Paris scenes and why Devon did not marry Guillaume.Overall, the film was embarrassing as a comedy, as the jokes were flat, the situations were implausible, and the characters never really connected. Yet, somehow, this film was "inspired by real events." In the making of "We'll Never Have Paris," something went terribly wrong in the translation of life into art.
vincentlynch-moonoi
To my surprise, I actually feel relatively positive about this film. ANd, it has helped me change my mind about Simon Helberg. When Helberg first came to my attention in "The Bag Bang Theory", his character was pretty much a perv, and that was a turn-off for me. Then over the first few seasons they modified the character to be much more likable. But seeing him here, in a film he wrote and starred in, I'm rather impressed.Now that's not to say this is a "great" movie. But it's quite good. And clearly Helberg is a multi-talented man. And, here we literally get to see him in his big boy pants! ;-) Helberg comes across well as a sort of hypochondriac character with low esteem. I wasn't thrilled by Melanie Lynskey as his eventual fiancé, and I couldn't decide if I disliked her acting, or if it was just that I though Helber's character deserved better in a fiancé. I'm not quite clear why Alfred Molina, Judith Light, and Fritz Weaver accepted roles here...their screen time is absolutely minimal, and they are each very good actors.It's not great. It's nothing special. But I found it interesting. And I'm guessing we'll see lots more of Helberg...although he doesn't have the body to be a great film star. It will be an interesting career.
dusty-10041
The story is about an immature boy (Quinn) who lives in an awkward child-mother relationship (Devon). Although this situation is unhealthy for both of them, keeping stuck into this seems comfortable for them.When Quinn is sexually attracted by some girlie (Kelsey) who is surely unfitting for him as well and would doubtlessly take advantage of him as soon as she is able to, he seems to question his platonic relationship with Devon.However, this (to some degree) healthy development brings up guilt and fear so he regresses to a boy who seeks forgiveness by his mother in place (Devon) who basically turns away from him.After some back and forth between Devon, Kelsey and some others Devon moves to Paris to her grandparents where she meets some french guy (Guillaume).Afterwards we see some more boyish behavior from Quinn who tries to win Devon back which is to some part successful, however, there is then some tumult where everything gets very awkward and clumsy and it seems Devon is lost for Quinn.Out of the blue Devon travels back to the US where she tells Quinn that she came back for him - perhaps she misses her mother feelings? So he proposes to her and right after that Quinn regresses again and seeks for forgiveness for sleeping with another woman.After some back and forth (again!) Devon forgives him and takes him as his man-child.Wow - I can only hope that the "true story" behind this cinematographic awkwardness is based on very loose events.But what I wonder is: What is Hollywood trying to tell us with this film? I mean, many other pictures tells us about the so-called development to a man, where the relationship or some girl makes someone a man which enables so-called real love. Although this is also a silly cliché, to some degree it makes some sense to me: At least the "man" is the hero and the new hero will try everything to fulfill his girls dreams. Of course, he is still his mother's child, however, this dynamic is socially accepted and widely believed to be the ideal of any relationship.But this film seems to transport the awkward ideal of marrying his mother and I wonder whoever would like this?
AD
