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Created Dec 18, 2012 11:19PM PST • Edited Nov 23, 2018 10:33PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Very Good 3.5

   Goodbye Barcelona. Russian Dolls sends the Euro dudes and dudettes from The Spanish Apartment to London, Paris and St. Petersburg, with a side trip for clubbing in Moscow. Fairly steady sexual tension and plenty of mildly amusing romantic hijinks make it an entertaining trip, one that’s set five years on from the first movie, meaning the youngsters are now in their mid-twenties.

   This chapter focuses on three standouts from The Spanish Apartment. Roman Duris’s regular guy, a bumbler who is successful at the same time; Kelly Reilly’s love-tossed British writer; and Cécile De France’s chic urban lesbian.

   Duris’s character has become an improbably successful writer, an observer of life as much as a participant, though he manages to participate his way into bed with a succession of hotties. How successful? He lands a gig writing tripe for French TV, and then lands a gig ghostwriting a supermodel’s autobiography. Naturally he has to spend time with her…

   Presented as lightweight French Fellini keeps what is a long soap opera cinematically interesting.

   Cédric Klapisch – the writer-director – sets up a reasonable mystery about which Doll, er girl, his alter-ego ends up with. The poster gives away the answer, at least to those who saw the first movie and recognize who Duris is kissing. Not to worry even if you do make her out. The movie is still an enjoyable ride.

   Klapisch is said to be planning a final installment of The Spanish Apartment trilogy. Given the pleasantly surprising turns he cooked up for Russian Dolls, I’m game to see where he goes next.

4. Acting

   Great 4.0

   Romain Duris has got to be the luckiest actor in France, getting to play a guy who sleeps with pretty girls from one side of Paris to the other, not to mention in London, St. Petersburg and Moscow. Dude’s fantasy.

   Kelly Reilly impresses even more in Russian Dolls than in its predecessor. By turns gorgeous and plain, she is never less than interesting, the type of actress who makes a movie worth watching just by being in it.

   Audrey Tautou is adorable in visage and quicksilver in her emotions. No wonder she’s a major star.

   Cécile De France also impresses even more than in The Spanish Apartment. Her scene feigning heterosexuality to impress a friend’s grandfather is a classic.

   Kevin Bishop also shows impressive growth. Evguenya Obraztsova is lovely and touching as his Russian bride.

   The actresses playing Duris’s lovers:

   • Irene Montalà  is spirited and impetuous.
   • Lucy Gordon is only semi convincing as a supermodel, though now I feel bad about criticizing her since she committed suicide in ’09.
   • Aïssa Maïga¯ga is fresh as a Senegalese working as a Parisian shopgirl.

   Martine Demaret is rather affecting as the mother of Duris’s character, a woman we – and he – get to see in a non-maternal light.

5. Male Stars Great 4.0

6. Female Stars Great 4.0

7. Female Costars Great 4.0

8. Male Costars Great 4.0

10. Film

    Very Good 3.5

    Cédric Klapisch uses several cinematic devices to move his long story along, including more than a little time-lapse photography. This is mostly effective, as are his French Fellini touches. One of the more direct ones is when the writer-narrator is shown literally between his wife and his mother, as they are fighting for his attentions.

    BTW, the title – just what you might think – is explained at the end.

11. Direction Good 3.0

12. Play Great 4.0

    The lead protagonist (hard to call him a hero after some of his dishonorable behavior) is clearly Cédric Klapisch’s alter-ego. Thus his charmed career and improbable success with women have more than a whiff of wish fulfillment.

    However, he does demonstrate a keen eye for the human condition, as his film – told from a writer’s perspective – is essentially a long sequence of keen observations.

13. Music Good 3.0

14. Visuals Very Good 3.5
15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 2.3

    Perhaps the sexiest scene this time around is when the hetero hero lives for a while in the apartment of a Parisian lesbian, and gets to hang out for an extended time during one of her parties. It reminded me of the Parisian vampire scene from Interview with the Vampire, except instead of entering the lair of debonair vampires, we enter the lair of debonair lesbians. Très chic.

17. Sex Erotic 2.6

18. Violence Fierce 1.7

19. Rudeness Salty 2.5

21. Reality

    Glib 1.2

    The movie has one fascinating revelation: Russian communal apartments or kommunalkas were still lived in by multiple families as recently as the last decade. The movie shows this tawdry holdover as an unwanted reminder of Russia’s communist past.

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.6

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0