JUST A SIGH - TRIBECA REVIEW

BY MATEO MORENO

Imagine a sweet, intriguing of two people crashing into each other in Paris.  They’re meeting on a train, both lost in their own ways and looking to reclaim themselves.  Their paths should have never logically crossed but here they are, unable to not be drawn to each other and falling for each other over a course of walking and talking about life and love, the possibilities they hold, and the disappointments they’ve encountered.  If you’ve read this and though, “Yes, I do love Before Sunrise” I would say to that that I do too, but sadly that’s  not the film I’m talking about.  I’m referring to the wannabe “romance” JUST A SIGH (Le temps de l'aventure) starring Emmanuelle Devos and Gabriel Byrne.  For although it has some of the DNA that Richard Linklater’s classic film from years ago held, it has none of its magic.

Devos plays a stage actress named Alix.  She’s currently in a show but is unfulfilled and broke.  On what’s meant to be a quick journey into Paris, she makes eyes with an American, played by Byrne.  They seem drawn to each, and eventually Byrne asks her for directions to where he’s going.  They go their separate ways, but Alix can’t let the image of him go from her mind.  So she stalks him at the location he was heading to, which happens to be a funeral for his dear friend.  He for some reason doesn’t find this creepy and, after a very long scene of not much dialogue and lots of sitting around staring at each other, walk the streets of Paris, eventually heading back to his hotel room.  She then leaves him and goes on a couple mini adventures by herself before heading back to him.  And so on and so on.  Really not much happens in Just a Sigh and the title is really spot on, as that’s exactly how I felt the entire film.  Devos plays Alix as a really unlikable and annoying character.  She’s not someone you can root for at all, so you don’t and then you’re stuck with a character leading the story that you don’t like.  Bryne is a fine actor and has done many great films, but this is not one of them.  Writer/Director Jérôme Bonnell has replaced actual longing with long shots of the two actors staring at each other, replacing real romance with loneliness and if you’re like me, you’ll sit in the theatre, longing to escape so you can return to Linklater’s masterpiece (or either of their two wonderful sequels) so you can feel something other than annoyance.  It’s not necessarily directed bad (and the cinematography by Pascal Lagriffoul is lovely), but it simply doesn’t have anything interesting to say.

VERDICT: SKIP IT

Written and Directed by Jérôme Bonnell Starring Emmanuelle Devos, Gabriel Byrne Country France (In English and French) Content Disclaimer (Adult Situations, Adult Language, Nudity)  For ticket and screening information: http://tribecafilm.com/festival/tickets

BOTTOM LINE: A boring, meandering mess of a film that really wants to be something it doesn't have the soul for.