The new French film Someone, Somewhere was originally titled Deux Moi, which means, more or less, Two of Me. But if the U.S. distributors had really wanted a good American title, they could have dubbed it Sleepless in Paris, since it’s about two lonely people who might be the cure for one another’s melancholy — if only they would meet.
Rémy (François Civil, Frank) works for an Amazon-like distribution center that’s busy replacing humans with robots. He seems impervious to stress but isn’t happy and can’t sleep. Mélanie (Ana Girardot, Escobar: Paradise Lost) is worried that she sleeps too much. She’s a graduate student and researcher nervously preparing for her first major presentation. The movie follows each of them through their lives in a series of smart, funny vignettes: Rémy spectacularly failing a job interview; Mélanie having a series of bad dates from online match sites; and so on.
They live, of course, on the same floor in adjacent buildings and (almost) cross paths in their local pharmacy or in the Middle Eastern market where they shop — and Rémy even smells the smoke from Mélanie’s cigarette when they’re both on their oh-so-close balconies. They even consecutively adopt the same adorable white kitten who’s therapeutic for each of them. But they don’t meet until — let’s just say “later.”
It’s not overreaching to state that Someone, Somewhere is less about Rémy and Mélanie than it is about modern alienation and isolation. But that’s not likely to repel viewers, because the theme is so well grounded in narrative, in familiar behaviors and situations and feelings we all recognize. Most importantly, the lead actors, Civil and Girardot, are completely believable and sympathetic, which gives the movie emotional weight despite its episodic plotting.
The final third of Someone, Somewhere may be a bit longer than it needs to be, especially once viewers can see where it’s going, but the ending is still satisfying — hopeful yet not saccharine. It’s a happy jolt of espresso, hold the sugar.
Available starting April 24 via fineartstheatre.com
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