"Décalage horaire" (2002) aka "Jet Lag" was the third film written/directed by Daniele Thompson that I've seen. It may not be as marvelous as La Bûche (1999), her directorial debut or charming and delightful as Fauteuils d'orchestre (2006), her latest film but it is definitely worth seeing for the wonderful acting by two fine French actors, Juliette Binoche and Jean Reno who both played against their types. Binoche does not appear often in the comedies and Reno is not well known as a romantic lead but they were pleasure to watch in the light romantic dramedy that takes place in the famous Paris Charles de Gaulle airport one long rainy night when all flights were grounded by weather and a baggage strike. Two strangers meet by chance, when Rose (Binoche) who had accidentally flushed her cell phone in a toilet, asks a perfect stranger, Felix (Reno), to use his phone. They are both professionally successful. He is a chef who made a fortune in the frozen-food business, and she has won a golden brush, the equivalent of Pulitzer Prize for the make-up artists. Their personal lives are the mess. Each has the problems, disappointments, unsatisfying or unfinished relationships by the time of their first encounter. She flees from her abusive boyfriend of 12 years (Sergio Lopes is memorably scary in a tiny cameo). He still can't recover from his previous relationship and suffers from anxiety attacks. Perhaps, 81 minutes is not enough to convince us that these two flawed and insecure individuals will overcome their past and live happily ever after but Binoche and Reno masterfully and elegantly created on the screen the possibility of love and readiness to accept it.

For reasons to which I am not privy and which may be no more than pure chance the bulk of Daniele Thompson's screenplays feature ensemble casts and she is a Past Master at the multiple-character, multi-layered storyline. It was not surprising therefore than when she turned to directing she did so with her own screenplay La Buche which centered on three sisters and their disparate lives but also offered strong roles to four semi-leads with a handful of cameos (Isabelle Carre's neurotic wife, for example) for good measure. Thompson returned to the multi-character format in her third (and so far last)writer-director stint, the brilliant Fauteuils d'Orchestre but in between, as if to prove her versatility, she came up with this, essentially two-hander which exploits brilliantly the talents of Juliette Binoche and Jean Reno. Not that she ignores the bigger picture, she does, after all, set her story in an airport and an adjacent hotel allowing a mere five minutes or so of non-airport/hotel screen time at the very end.In a clear nod to the Hollywood epitomized by Billy Wilder she employs a meet-cute to bring the characters together and from then on it's downhill all the way with Thompson's sparkling dialogue slaloming its way to a brilliant finale. Both leads are a revelation and more than up to the task of working outside their 'image' (Binoche is not noted for comedy, Reno for romantic leads) and the obvious chemistry between them is confirmed by the outtakes that come with the DVD. There's a nice line in scenery chewing from Sergio Lopez in a well-placed cameo as the abusive lover from whom Binoche is fleeing and the sure-footedness of the other speaking roles is merely the bow on the ribbon with which Thompson ties her wonderful bauble. Sheer delight.

You know you're in trouble when a song starts in the middle of a movie and the story stops developing for a while: They do so here because they want to stay faithful to the romcom genre and Décalage horaire / Jet Lag is a French take on a distinct American genre. This fails for several reasons, one of them being that the character and conversation-driven French movie is at odds with the light and caricature-driven American romcom-genre.It tells the story of Rose (Juliette Binoche) and Félix (Jean Reno) in a not too obvious way: Their background, problems and dreams come out one by one. Both have marriage troubles, a troubled relation with one of their parents and both have unfulfilled dreams. Rose is having terrible make-up on but seems to be excellent in make-up; Félix has set up a company of deep-frozen food he sells to supermarkets while his unfulfilled dream is it to become a star-studded chef. Rose and Félix regularly meet at the airport waiting for a plane to leave, a metaphor of their lives stuck by bad decisions (and mild criticism of the French public service always on strike). In the end they make relevant decisions, also about their relation to each other (with the genre in mind we all know what that means).The story is told in bits and pieces and it works as a means to keep us interested about their life stories. Also, the meetings they have don't shy away from being assertive, offensive or intrusive as they expect it is their only meeting. From the airport hotel on the movie goes off the genre track, and arrives in the usual French habit of long and uninteresting conversations. French people have a tendency for long and deep conversations about not too offensive and personal subjects as a way of courtesy and care for one's private life, so this is rather challenging stuff I guess.Most actors try comedy in their careers at least once. Most fail, so Binoche and Reno have nothing to be ashamed of. Décalage horaire is a failed attempt at light-hearted French comedy.

French films are characterized by dialog and this film is no exception. The setting is clever - not really a modern adaptation of The VIP's, but on that order (and more down to earth). The situation is funny and, in the cell phone era, one to which we might all relate. (Of course, I assume not many people lose their cell phones à la Juliette Binoche.)A fan of both Binoche and Reno, I find both charming and the chemistry between them very real. Binoche's beautician is also far more interesting, and less stereotypified, than American film portrayals (Fran Drescher, Dolly Parton, Jennifer Coolidge...)Not one of the great French films by any means, but I still give this one 8/10.