Love and Diversity in a New York “Chinese Puzzle”
By Skip Sheffield
Adorable French actress Audrey Tautou brightens every movie
she is in. She is the shiniest part of a quartet of 40-something characters in
the screwball romantic comedy, “Chinese Puzzle,” written and directed by Cedric
Klapisch.
Tautou is just a supporting player- Martine, an ex-girlfriend- in the
life of procrastinating novelist Xavier Rousseau (ingratiating French actor Romain
Duris). Xavier's life is coming unraveled near his 40th birthday.
Xavier is already divorced from Wendy (Kelly Reilly), his British wife of ten years,
but he remains civil for the sake of their two children, with whom they share
in joint custody.
“I have a Point B Problem,” he muses glumly. “I always keep
changing direction.”
The direction changes again when Wendy finds a new love, and decides she wants a fresh start. So she abruptly takes the children from
Paris and moves in with the rich, handsome new guy in his fancy New York City
apartment overlooking Central Park.
Xavier is understandably upset, and rather than simply giving
in, he decides to pull up roots and move to New York. This of course is easier
said than done, as we see in his long and humorously futile search for an apartment
he can afford. He finally finds a tiny flat in Chinatown.
The fourth element of the quartet is Isabelle (Cecile de
France), a platonic friend of Xavier’s. Isabelle is a lesbian who lives with
her girlfriend in New York and allows Xavier to stay temporarily.
The Chinese part of the equation is Ju (Sandrine Holt), a
Chinese-American woman who agrees to “marry” Xavier (he had rescued her father
from a beating) so he can get a green card and works legally in the USA.
"Chinese Puzzle” is the third and final part of a trilogy
that began with “L’Auberge Espagnole” in 2002 and continued with “Russian
Dolls” in 2005. The same quartet of actors plays in all three films about love
and life. This one is by far my favorite because it is a both love note to New
York City and all its diversity and complexity and an ode to love found again,
starring winsome Audrey Tautou and handsome, humbled Romain Duris.
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