Peter Bradshaw 

Chinese Puzzle review – amiable Cédric Klapisch trilogy-closer

Romain Duris and Audrey Tautou head for New York in a likable finale to Cédric Klapisch's trilogy of dramedies, writes Peter Bradshaw
  
  

Chinese Puzzle
Bopping along amiably … Chinese Puzzle. Photograph: PR

Cédric Klapisch's free-wheeling, absurd but likable dramedy Chinese Puzzle, is the last part of a trilogy that began with his 2002 movie L'Auberge Espagnole, introducing us to a pan-European cast of twentysomethings doing a "stagiaire" studentship in Brussels. His Russian Dolls (2005) took the characters to St Petersburg and now with Chinese Puzzle, these people are in New York, pushing 40 with complicated lives: divorce, remarriage, jobs in different cities, stepkids. Fitting it all together is the "Chinese puzzle" of the title, and Klapisch turns China into a pert motif for exotic muddle (as in, perhaps: "Forget it, Jake, it's Chinese-puzzle-town"). Xavier (Romain Duris) is now a successfulish Paris writer devastated to learn his wife Wendy (Kelly Reilly) wants to leave him and take the kids to New York to be with her new man. Xavier follows her out there, where he has a fake wedding with a Chinese-American woman to stay in the country; his lesbian friend Isabelle (Cécile De France) is there having a relationship with Ju (Sandrine Holt), another Chinese-American woman, where they are bringing up the child they had using his sperm. Meanwhile, Xavier's ex-girlfriend Martine (Audrey Tautou) shows up in New York to do business with a Chinese tea company and their flame is rekindled. For all its goofiness and silliness, the story bops amiably and fluently along. It's a sort of boxset drama where the best stuff is in the last episode.

 

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