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Rating:  - disappointed
Found the movie not as funny as I thought it would be. Also too exaggerated to the point of uneasiness where I didn't even recognized the French even though I'm a native from France.
Rating:  - Waste of Time and Money
Though Delpy has been reasonably competent in earlier films, in this one - almost totally her product - she is not only boring but irritating. Pointless and tasteless, this film does not even show the wonderful city of Paris to good advantage.
Rating:  - Refreshing, Quirky
Julie Delpy's character rings modern and true, like Sex and the City set in bohemian Paris. It's refreshing to see a female lead fumble through a relationship as carelessly and self-centeredly as men do, and always have. This is the modern woman with choices, and they overwhelm her even as she comes to realize that she no longer wants to go through the endless cycle of breaking up, rebounding, and finding connection again, and again. Goldberg's character has our sympathy, and we feel for him as he watches Delpy flirt her way to commitment. This is an engaging and quirky role refersal. And Delpy's deft script allows us to ponder political questions from terrorism to women's rights to the environment: her father keys cars parked carelessly because he "doesn't like them." It isn't always pleasant--the couple argues through much of the film, and it often veers into the mundane--but that makes it more lke life. And Delpy makes us laugh along the way.
Rating:  - Very funny and true
I am an American who lived in Europe for years and I can't tell you how true this movie is. So many of the scenes in this movie actually happened to me. The entire scene with the woman's parents is so funny and true. I laughed so many times during this movie. It is also nice to see a movie that is not freighted down with all the B.S. we weigh down movies with in the U.S. (all the illusions about relationships "lasting forever" and all that kind of stuff that movies in the U.S. get weighed down with), etc. The Delphy character is really typical of a specific type of European woman who admits she only is going to stay with a guy for 2 years, but that it will be fun. Very, very good movie.
BTW, Paris is EXACTLY like that. That scene in the McDonalds actually happened to me.
Rating: - theater of the absurd
There is not a dull moment in this film. Delpy has a blast playing with cliches and truisms about the French - and Americans. She pokes at the racism, promiscuity, xenophobia, intellectual pretensions and vulgarity that come to light as soon as one scratches the surface of the French psyche.
On the other hand, she also shows the hearty, food-loving, stylish and alive core of the French where the family sticks together for better and worse and where life is appreciated for its own sake.
An argument for the French is not a time to reach for the gun, or call the psychiatrist - it is an opportunity to display how you feel, and get the emotional charge out of your system. A healthy way of being in the world, which sometimes scares the crap out of the typical American ...yet what do you prefer: the true person or fake politeness?
The film plays with national and class stereotypes in a tight, fast-paced, brilliantly scripted story which nevertheless finds plenty of space to touch genuine and deep human emotions and predicaments. Delpy explores the nature of connection tethered to the inexorable fact the we know all too well: that "love" and commitment involves daily negotiation, adaptation and acceptance of teh partner for who they are. A relationship where personal quirks and idiosyncrasies are not only indulged but in some weird way celebrated. Where one never knows when or why the break-up occurs, sometimes hanging in on the precipice of chance.
In other words, Delpy's Paris, and her French and Americans are real people and the story is a story about reality, even though, paradoxically, the film itself is made to poke fun at cliches. I laughed most the time, and at other times I was sad. What more can one want from a film?
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