Le Week-End (2013)

Directed by: Roger Michell
Country: UK

Movie Review: “Le Week-End” is the third collaboration between director Roger Michell (better known by the massive hit “Notting Hill”) and screenwriter Hanif Kureishi, after “The Mother” in 2003, and “Venus” in 2006. The result is an agreeable romantic comedy that is kept alive by constant changes in tone, whether in terms of speech or behavior. Nick (Jim Broadbent) and Meg Burrows (Lindsay Duncan) form a long-married British couple who decides to go to Paris for a weekend and try to give a break on crisis, 30 years after have spending their honeymoon there. Several tribulations, unexpected encounters, hearty speeches at dinner tables, and a mix of laugh and sorrow, will mark this special and unforgettable weekend. Despite some common situations, the film was able to celebrate love over any possible trouble that might come, not without some friction, dispute, and irritation. After they bump into Morgan (Jeff Goldblum), Nick’s former fellow student, Meg promptly accepts his invitation for a dinner party at his house. While he smokes a joint with Morgan’s teen son, she accepts an invitation for a drink addressed by another man. Things don’t seem to go in the right path and the tension grows until the film’s disarming last moments. Michell and his trio of actors put sufficient charm in an adventurous romantic story that, at least, had the merit of never being corny.