Diane Lane as Anne Lockwood and Arnaud Viard as Jacques Clement in the film Paris Can Wait.Eric Caro
File this one under: Films I wish I liked. Anne (Diane Lane) needs to get from Cannes to Paris. She accepts a ride with a French business associate, Jacques (Arnaud Viard), and what should be a seven-hour dash turns into a days-long road trip through La Belle France, complete with vistas, vin and vats of fromage.
I love that writer/director Eleanor Coppola (yes, wife of Francis Ford) is making her feature-film debut at age 80 (she's made several documentaries, including Hearts of Darkness). I applaud her for speaking to an underserved slice of filmgoers, women over 50. Anne spent her life nurturing others; now, confronted with a waning business, an empty nest and a distracted husband (Alec Baldwin), she has to think about what nurtures her. The scenery is delicious, the food looks ravishing, Anne's wardrobe is spot-on.
But there's one big problem: Anne doesn't drive her own journey. She spends scene after scene passively letting Jacques tell her what to do, eat and think. And there's no detouring around that.