Although George has enjoyed recent romantic comedies such as "Two Weeks Notice," "What a Girl Wants," "Sweet Home Alabama," "Deliver us from Eva" and "Serendipity," (that's a lot of syrup!) each of those films is targeted at teens or young adults. It could make one wonder if your sex life ends at 35! Felix (Jean Reno of "Crimson Rivers") and Rose (Juliette Binoche of "Chocolat") provide some hope to the not quite geriatric set (you know, 40ish) in this delightful love story.
They meet at the airport in Paris, when an air controller strike results in Felix being deplaned and Rose loses her cell phone when it's accidentally flushed down a toilet. She asks to borrow his phone to make a local call. Felix is a former gourmet chef who is now a senior executive of a frozen food company. Rose is a beautician and masseuse, on her way to Acapulco to work at an upscale hotel. She's broke and he has plenty of cash. Her flight is from a discount ticket broker and he's in first class.
Rose has been in a twelve year relationship with Sergio (Sergi Lopez of "With a Friend Like Harry"), where she has been faking orgasms for longer than she can remember. It's only been a short time since she decided to leave Sergio and start life somewhere else. It's time for a change and the only thing she knows is she needs to do something else, somewhere else. Sergio has a bad temper and is abusive. The relationship is one in which you love somebody that you don't even like.
Although Felix is divorced, he is emotionally attached to his ex, and will go to a funeral for a person in her family that he cares nothing about. He has a way to go to make his letting go complete.
Since they are in the confines of an airport, the repeated coincidental bumping into one another is more realistic than most romantic encounters of people that have just met. When Felix is offered a room at the airport Hilton and he notices Rose preparing to sleep in the airport terminal, he asks her to join him so she will be more comfortable. The thought of having sex with her is not even in his subconscious. Over the past few hours, because of the use of his cell phone and *69 call backs, they have a budding acquaintance with one another. This will not be your normal one-night-stand.
They reluctantly begin to make small talk, which becomes deeper when they realize they can say what they want, and not play games or be guarded, since they'll never see each other again. And getting back to sex for those over 35, there are two brief scenes with nudity that are far sexier than most films that get into heavy breathing, which seems to last forever. The sexuality in this R rated film will be more acceptable to many than a lot of PG-13 movies marketed to tweens and teens. The movie does have an unbelievable number of coincidences that prevent Rose and Felix from going their separate ways and the outcome is totally predictable, yet there is nothing silly about this comedy. This romantic fantasy for adults has a happy ending without treating its intended audience like children.
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