Chinese Puzzle

Auberge Espagnole showed us that your 20's are chaotic and fun; Poupees Russes told us that at 30, true love still exists. The message in part 3 is that at 40, modern life is crazy - you can travel the world, live anywhere, have multiple kids, relationships and career, and juggle it all with no major problems. It's fast, wacky, ridiculous, and the characters are not really as likeable as when they were younger. Klapisch remains an entertaining raconteur but I hope this series is finished now.

I quite enjoyed this film - it features some amusing situations/scenes and good characterisation. Its about culture clashes I suppose. It's mostly but not entirely in French. It has some sexual scenes in it but its not an overly explicit film. Its a little quirky/wacky, in a good way I'd say. It'd be hard not tof eel sorry for Xavier, the main character, protagonist, plus of course Audrey Tatou gives another great performance, this time as Martine. Yes, I'd recommend this film.

Chinese Puzzle is more enjoyable than Russian Dolls. The film finds its own tempo & is mildly amusing, but repeats the climax of L'Auberge which underscores the futility of Xavier's existence. The happy ending also feels the need to diegetically justify itself. It seems Klapisch has thematically moved on from his own trilogy but is still attached to the characters. Despite kids, a heavy carbon footprint & immigration fraud; Xavier's problems aren't much different from when we first met him.