Le Divorce (2003)

A very pleasant and enjoyable movie with a great American cast. Paris is well photographed, France as it is and not as it shows itself in those boring, subsidized navel-gazing French movies. I said great American cast because the French actors, especially the young ones (Thiery Lhermitte is better than he usually is, but it's difficult to see what the character played by Kate Hudson found sexy in him), are awful both as actors and film stars. Especially scruffy, shallow Romain Duris but one wonders how a down to earth, sexy girl like Naomi Watts could be madly in love with such an effeminate, foolish character as pitiful Melvil Poupaud. Shows the sad state of French cinema.

I was surprised to find that this was marketed as a romantic comedy. I didn't see much romance and I didn't see any comedy. I'd classify it as a drama, albeit a very melodramatic and tiresome one. With characters that I didn't care for or about. The most positive feeling I had for any character was apathy. I expected better based on the actors involved in the project. The only good things were the few shots of the food in the restaurant, which at first seemed over the top but later seemed to be a saving grace of the movie, and the Paris scenery. Those two things alone warranted the rating but I'd much rather have just watched a travel show. It's just a shame I watched it on TV so I couldn't ask for my money back.

The first time I watched this film, I didn't realise there were English subtitles so I watched the whole thing and was really confused because half of it was in French. Even after discovering the subtitles, a significant proportion of the French is not translated.This film made a bit more sense after discovering that it was originally a book. It's like taking a whole season of a drama such as "Desperate Housewives" or "One Tree Hill" and putting all of those stories and what can happen into 112 minutes. Be prepared for a dramatic roller-coaster.In terms of the quality of the film, the acting is incredible. Naomi Watts and Kate Hudson shine although Hudson's character doesn't have the quirky comments like she does in "How to lose a guy in 10 days".Don't watch this film if you have an afternoon to watch a good quality film....however if you've got an hour and a half free it's a great way to past the time.Lastly, the 12 rating is a bit low I think. Without giving away spoilers I'm just going to say I would've put it at 15 - let me know what you think about that!! Jo

It beggars belief that James Ivory would conceive of such a film in 2003. It all feels like a soft-focus Eurotrash/American melodrama from the 1980s, with its soft-focus lensing and European clichés. The acting leaves a lot to be desired and is often very wooden and awkward as the European actors strive to be convincing in the English language - Melville Poppaud in particular is miscast as the cheating husband.Not even Naomi Watts can save the day. She is also miscast alongside her screen sister Kate Hudson. Both are above the material but fail to rise above the clichéd and mediocre script.Le Divorce is a pitiful embarrassment and belongs on 1980s TV as a mini-series rather than a fully-fledged feature film.