A spy discovers doing a favor for a friend leads her into unexpectedly dangerous circumstances in this dark comedy. It's been close a decade since French intelligence agent Irene (Juliette Binoche) has heard from her friend Elliot (Nick Nolte), an American CIA operative who left Europe and took up a new identity under mysterious circumstances. But one day out of the blue Irene gets a call from Elliot as he asks her to track down his daughter Orlando (Sara Forestier), currently living in the
French countryside, and bring her to Paris so they can re-connect. Irene agrees, but she soon discovers Orlando has nothing good to say about her missing dad and only grudgingly agrees to pay him a visit. When they arrive in Paris, Irene and Orlando find the family reunion is bigger than they thought -- David (Tom Riley), Elliot's stepson, is also on hand, though David and Orlando mix like oil and water. As Elliot tries to juggle meetings with his two children and Irene tries to help by playing interference, Elliot is also visited by a deranged American intelligence representative, William Pound (John Turturro), who along with Elliot knows something about a possible attack on the United States, as well as a pair of shadowy moneymen (Mathieu Demy and Said Amadis) who want to know more about the plot and are willing to pay for the privilege. Quelques Jours En Septembre (aka A Few Days In September) was the first directorial credit for veteran screenwriter Santiago Amigorena. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Here is a film as rum and tangential as the theories themselves, a pleasingly off-kilter noir that casts Juliette Binoche as a cigarillo-smoking spymistress who lights out for Venice in the first days of September 2001.
An intriguing set-up spoiled by a clever-clever script, Christophe Beaucarne's migraine-inducing cinematography and performances which are decent, but never gel.
Amigorena has an eye for off-kilter camerawork and attractively shoots Paris and Venice as Binoche and the two twenty-somethings flee Turturro, but its existentialist musings and breezy road movie charm are no replacement for espionage movie brains.
A slow-burning thriller with an intriguing mystery at its centre, this film's tone is reminiscent of The Third Man, although updated to make some extremely provocative suggestions.
Walks the fine line between thriller and thriller satire, sometimes taking small detours left and right of the line before rejoining the ranks. It is a tough balancing act but Amigorena mostly pulls it off.
It is hard to describe the film because it tackles many important issues such as politics, society, and the world in general.
The film has many great qualities to it but the only flaw, i would say that it is the idea of using the 9/11 attack as part of the story. It isnt because the tragedy is too delicate to discuss
but because any other tragic event (less important) could have made the point. In using the 9/11 attack is just to attract people in seeing this picture when it is not necessary because the script itself is already brilliant.
The 3 protagonists have such great chemistry together in the film that it holds the story perfectly. Plus, they have the most interesting conversations. And John Turturro is so good that it worth seeing the film, just because of him.
Overall, it is a film to see because of its great dialogues and amazing cast.
March 9, 2008
Linda K. T.
Super Reviewer
A delicious sashay of a movie that can't quite make up its mind what it is: film noir, romantic comedy, espionage thriller, teen tease or spoof of them all. Yet somehow it holds together. Brittle, quirky dialog. Turturro is hilarious as a CIA assassin undergoing on-the-job cellphone therapy. Benoit is incomparable, of
course. Nolte is Nolte but his gravitas gives the film work boots.
September 29, 2009
Tom Parrett
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