Mélanie Laurent seemed so fresh and charming in "Beginners" that we thought we'd give this one a try. Here she plays a character, Juliette, so hard-workingly quirky and self-absorbed that very little charm shows through; Michel Blanc is more appealing as Eli, her neglectful but repentant garmento father, but writer-director Jennifer Devoldère's Parisian version of Jewish humor seems pale and derivative compared to just about any of our own homegrown varieties (not sure why the subtitlist translated "schmuck" as "schwanz," btw). The comic fantasy aspects of the script seem too silly and contrived to bear any emotional weight; students of brand-name humor in the Eurozone may appreciate the feeble riffs on Starbucks vs. Illy, Crocks, Ebay and Dr. Dre, others not so much. Helpful suggestion—"Beginners" turns up on cable from time to time and is available from Netflix on Blu-ray and DVD.
Review of The Day I Saw Your Heart
