From Paris with Love

Peter Morel's From Paris with Love is enjoyable junk food cinema. The plot is inconsequential, the dialogue is pretty much forgettable, and there's not a single thing to think about while you're watching it. But it's so much fun to watch, I doubt many will care. The movie is a violent live action cartoon, and thank goodness for that. If this movie tried to take itself seriously, it would have been laughed right off the screen.

The cast certainly seems to be enjoying themselves, which is always a plus in a movie like this. If they're not having fun, then the audience usually isn't. It's especially fun to watch John Travolta reveling his role as Charlie Wax, a super spy who has a passion for guns, prostitutes, fast cars, and big explosions. His methods are unorthodox, but he gets the job done. And you have to admire his talent for being able to hang himself outside the window of a car that's speeding down a highway while aiming a bazooka at a fleeing vehicle, without anyone else on the highway apparently noticing him. That's not easy to do. If you don't believe me, try it yourself. Travolta plays him as if he knows he has the coolest job in the world, and he's well aware he's the biggest bad ass in the room. He demonstrates this with gusto when he is able to clear an entire Chinese restaurant full of assassins in a matter of seconds. Sure, the stunt work relies heavily on Matrix-style special effects, but the action sequences are edited smoothly enough so that we can not only tell what's going on at all times, but we also get to see enough of the actors getting to do their own stuff.

The plot is an afterthought, but here's the rundown anyway. Charlie is teamed up on his latest mission with James Reece (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers), the assistant to the American ambassador in Paris. James is a laid back man, happy with his fiance, Caroline (Kasia Smutniak), and doesn't know what to make of Charlie's extreme ways when he's paired up with the spy to be his driver. Charlie's mission seems to be to snuff out some Asian drug dealers that have ties to the recent death of the Secretary of Defense's daughter, but it turns out the mission is even more urgent. There is a meeting of American political figures taking place in Paris, and some terrorists are plotting to bomb the gathering. There are a few plot twists to keep things moving, but really, the plot is not the focus here. It's the string of elaborate and well-staged action sequences that grab our attention, as well as the likable "odd couple" dynamic that Travolta and Rhys-Meyers bring. It's funny to see how they handle each situation differently. Charlie is calm and collected as the number of bodies pile up in his wake, while James seems to often be wondering how he ended up running around Paris, carrying a vase full of cocaine.

The story was dreamed up by Luc Besson, and if you've seen any of his films, you'll see the connection. He specializes in action films that are usually bigger than life and twice as dumb. This is no exception. It zooms along, barely making enough sense for us to follow, and keeps on tossing in a lot of big action set pieces to distract us from the fact that there's not much behind the explosions. Here, we at least get a few interesting relationships. Besides the main one between Charlie and James, we also get a romantic one between James and Caroline. It doesn't get a lot of screen time, but it's important none the less, and holds our interest. Rhys-Meyers and Smutniak have obvious chemistry together, and offer a nice counter balance to the comic book-style action sequences.

I feel I should stress that From Paris with Love should not be taken seriously in the slightest. I say this, because some critics are accusing the movie of being needlessly cruel, or even racist and sexist in its depiction of minorities and women. Maybe if the film was grounded in any form of reality, I would agree, but I think most open minded viewers will see the movie for what it is - A bloody live action cartoon for adults that delivers on what it promises, and is the first truly fun movie to hit the screens this year.

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