After arriving Xavier ends up settling in with about 6 roommates from various European countries (Italy, Germany, England, Spain, Norway, Belgium) and the wild cast of characters creates some ingenious comic situations. The film though is quite charming, and is dead on in explaining what it is like to live in a foreign land, and to escape your roots. While the stereotypes that are examined are quite played out, they are shown in a way that seems unique to the characters and come out very warm and of course VERY FUNNY. A highlight of the film arrives when Wendy's English brother comes down to visit her, and we discover he's a dumb ass loud mouth comic who thinks he knows everything about all the other countries these people come from. He ends up providing the majority of the funniest scenes by poking fun at every person in the group at his own dumb expense. But the highlight of the film really is how it shows what it means to live in another country. In the beginning we see that Xavier is awkward from fumbling around trying to find his first apartment, to complaining about Catalan, and by the end with the t-shirt he receives from his roommates on the last day, we see how he has been transformed by the friends he has met from all over.Quite a fun film, not perfect, but definitely a great film to see that will but a big smile on your face, and a warm feeling inside you once you have left the theatre.

Thanks Mr. Klapish and Romain for this sweet movie (and its sequel) because if i want to talk me about me, i just have to recommend it: same name, same job in Treasure Ministry, same experience abroad with European fellows, same passion for writing, same confusion about romances, same feeling about not understanding how world spins.I can't say how personal the story is personal to the director but it speaks true about trips (it's about leaving what you know and going in the unknown), about arrivals (maps, accommodation, marking the streets, decorating your room with pictures), about romances abroad (a way to have new ones)...As in the sequel, the director isn't boring because it adds a lot of funny moments and innovative storytelling with a perfect voice-over from Romain.I never been too much attracted to Spain but the last two movies I saw happened there and were very personal for me. Is it an omen?

The film is about a group of almost exclusively Western Europeans all living together in Barcelona in order to save money. The apartment is just jam-packed with these students. The story centers on a French student, Xavier, but also shows what's happening in the lives of several of his roommates (though a few are just there--with little insight into them or what makes them tick). An interesting idea, but it might have been improved by the addition of more nationalities--especially non-Western Europeans. I applaud the film makers for doing something different. Here they have created a truly multinational movie--with many, many different languages. So, it's one of the few films that will require you to read subtitles no matter where you are from--though I suppose somewhere there is one person who actually understands Danish, Italian, French, German, English, Spanish and perhaps another couple languages.Now this does not mean I loved the film? I liked parts of it, but the film suffered from a few plot problems--at least for me. Two things about the film bothered me but I am sure not everyone will be as turned off by them as much as me. First, any film that shows someone vomiting has to lose a point or two. If you are have a character retching, that's fine--but to show it repeatedly in all its glory is just nasty. I don't like watching vomit come shooting out a person's mouth--just call me weird about that! Secondly, while this problem is not always serious (it depends on the type of film), I have a hard time with a film where the main character is unlikable. This doesn't mean they need to be perfect, but having Xavier be such a jerk was a major turn off for me. He has a lovely fiancée but sleeps with a married woman...not exactly an endearing behavior. Several others also have equally discerning taste or help their roommates cheat on their significant others--making many in this flat seem like jerks. Though I must admit that the acting and direction were still good.Finally, a word about the DVD and poster art as well as the casting. Although Audrey Tautou is featured prominently and receives billing near the top of the film, her part was actually quite small. But, with the success of "Amélie", the film makers decided to try to exploit her small part and fool the public. I hate film marketing people--because that's exactly why I watched the film in the first place! It is clearly NOT a starring vehicle for her and if you expect that, you'll be sorely disappointed, like I was.

"When you first arrive in a new city, nothing makes sense. Everything's unknown, virgin... After you've lived here, walked these streets, you'll know them inside out. You'll know these people. Once you've lived here, crossed this street 10, 20, 1000 times... it'll belong to you because you've lived there. That was about to happen to me, but I didn't know it yet."The quote is when I decided that I'm going to love this movie, 10/10 kind of love. The premise looked really interesting and promising, I already liked the way the movie was made (camera work etc.), and quotes like that are gems that I love to find and that I don't find often. It felt very refreshing and quite original too - maybe someone has, but I haven't seen many movies with similar premise and everything, if any.I wish the whole movie could be like its first 15 or even 30 minutes (I don't look at the clock when a movie is that good, so I don't know when exactly it went all wrong). In fact I'd love to see a movie that would follow this movie's premise and first scenes.Sadly, it soon becomes a movie about mostly everyone sleeping with everyone (which, most of the time, is also everyone cheating on everyone), getting drunk/high and having no real goal in life. It gets so shallow that it becomes almost unwatchable and the main character, so promising at first, becomes the most despicable of them all. I wish I could give it a 10/10 for the beginning and 0/10 for the rest, but 2/10 has to do - there's no 0/10, so 1/10 is for everything else, and the good part gets one point.