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LE DIVORCE Send This Review to a Friend
Forget U.S.-French relations over Iraq. "Le Divorce," the ultra stylish new film directed by James Ivory based on Diane Johnson's novel, deals with Americans involved in the Paris we love best, the Paris of amour, mistresses, cuisine, fashion, fancy living, pretty scenery, the expressive language, so-called sophistication and its art world. Oh yes, there are also the less well-known legalities of divorce, French style. This Merchant-Ivory production, with a screenplay by Ivory and his long-time collaborator Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, is for those who enjoy reveling in such trappings and impeccable casting rather than for those less likely to relate to old-fashioned pleasures candy-wrapped in an up-to-date Parisian milieu in which two American beauties are trying to find their way.
Although the film's melodramatic ending seems forced, there is much to enjoy before the misstep. Kate Hudson, for one. She's a thorough delight in the romantic-comedy role of Isabel Walker, who comes to Paris from California to assist her pregnant sister Roxeanne, played by Naomi Watts with grace and the ease of someone who has mastered living in Paris. The trouble is that Roxeanne's husband, Charles-Henri de Persand (Melvil Poupaud) walks out on her for another woman just as her sister arrives. But Isabel is ready for fun and sexual escapades. After all, it's Paris.
Almost before you can said mais oui, she is propositioned by the suave, attractive and older Edgar, a French diplomat and the uncle of Roxeanne's wayward spouse. Played by popular French leading man Thierry Lhermitte, Edgar, married of course, candidly asks Isabel to become his mistress. "When do we start?" she replies. Their guilt-free dalliances begin, as do the gifts including an expensive handbag of the sort that Edgar has given to past mistresses, including poet and author Olivia Pace, played with wit and knowing experience by Glenn Close, for whom Isabel goes to work as an assistant.
The plot also involves a dispute over a valuable painting in the household of the sisters, which leads to legal maneuvers on the part of the well-heeled and snobbish de Persand family, presided over by Leslie Caron as Roxeanne's matronly mother-in-law. Caron is amusing as she grapples with Edgar's penchant for mistresses in the context of French acceptance of the institution as long as it is discreet and without unwanted complications.
What throws the film off stride is the presence of Matthew Modine as the desperate and hysterical Tellman, the irate husband of the woman Roxeanne's soon-to-be ex is bedding. The melodrama doesn't go with the film's over-all sophistication and the plot ploy becomes cheap, culminating in an action face-off atop the Eiffel Tower.
Otherwise, there are so many enjoyable ingredients, including Stockard Channing and Sam Waterston turning up as the parents of the sisters, Stephen Fry as an art dealer, Bebe Neuwirth as a museum representative and a screenplay with many numerous amusing conversations and sly observations. What the French may think of the film is anybody's guess, but the Merchant-Ivory look at Americans in new Old Europe provides for a diverting time at the movies. A Fox Searchlight Pictures release.
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