5 Stars.
Every Jack Has a Jill, or Until You (the infinitely better moniker directly translated from the French title), is the story of Chloe (Mélanie Laurent) and Jack (Justin Bartha). When Jack wins a trip to Paris through a Coca-Cola promotion he invites his girlfriend who promptly breaks up with him. Confused and hurt, Jack decides to leave for Paris anyway despite being a pretty anxious traveller. At the airport in Paris Jack's suitcase goes missing. While he waits for the airport to deliver his suitcase, he waits isolated in the room of his small hotel held hostage to the whims of the temperamental staff. Meanwhile, Chloe who has also lost her suitcase, receives Jack's by accident. Letting her curiosity get the better of her and opens it instantly falling in love the man she imagines to own it's contents. When Jack eventually gets his suitcase he immediately leaves for home. It's not until he's home that he finds mementoes from Chloe that begin to stir something within him. For the most part, the film concentrates on the neurotic Chloe. Among her neurosis is her discomfort with speaking with people on the telephone. To overcome this Chloe, who works as a journalist, has her colleague and friend Josée (Géraldine Nakache) make telephone calls on her behalf in exchange for writing her articles. It would have been nice to have the film focus a little more on Jack who although quite interesting is more of a supplementary figure. I take issue with some of the disjoint details in the script and the ease with which the characters travel back and forth across the Atlantic. Mélanie Laurent, more recently seen in Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds (2009), gives an excellent performance as the oddly wistful Chloe. Justin Bartha's casting in the role of Jack I though was unwise. Although Bartha's performance is fine, he brings a distinctly loud American presence to an otherwise very gently-paced film. Perhaps it's not fair, but I just couldn't disassociate Bartha's presence from his previous roles in films like the National Treasury franchise. It was extremely distracting. Billy Boyd (better known as Peregrin 'Pippin' Took in the Lord of the Rings franchise) also makes an appearance as Rufus, Jack's encouraging friend. Other notable performances are Myriam (Valérie Benguigui) and Didier (Yvon Back) as Chloe's neighbours and part-time therapists. This is a nice movie with all the kooky opinionated personalities you would expect of a French film.
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