A delightful surprise - I'd dismissed this film without having seen it like many. I was offended, I guess, by the idea of remaking Charade and its junior grade stars. So I didn't bother. Maybe I wouldn't have liked it at the time but now I totally get it and really enjoyed the film. I understand why Demme wanted to make it, coming off Beloved, a heavy movie, and distracted by his production company and Good Works. He just wanted to have fun. So he look a terrific script, and an actress he wanted to work with and had fun in France.
It's a love letter to the French new wave, with cameos from Agnes Varda, Anna Karina, and Charles Azanvour, and New Wave techniques and lots of French dialogue. He made the film for Thandie Newton who is fine - not perfect in the way Audrey Hepburn was but she's having a good time and Demme adores her. And Wahlberg is giving it a good try, and it's fun now to see him in a beret and talking French. Will Smith would've been much, much better but Demme is having a great time and so are the cast. Demme was ahead of the curve on diverse casting, and there's quirky touches like the girl from Emmanuele with the magazine (you'll know the one if you've seen the film) playing a cop, Ted Levine as a baddy but a flawed one. Tim Robbins is a little annoying with his dumb voice - this was around the time in his career when I began to dread him in films because he was always Saying Something about American Foreign Policy.
Loved the music. Enjoyed the movie.
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