"Décalage Horaire" or "Jet Lag" premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2002.
Danielle Thompson's "Decalage Horaire" is a simple, yet not necessarily simplistic, ode to love. The story concerns two opposites who meet at Charles de Gaulle Airport during a strike. They are constantly thrown together by fate ending up spending a night together (sex does not enter the equation) and during the course of their wait realising they have more in common than they thought.
Félix (Jean Reno) is a French man living in the US. He is chasing after a woman he belives he still loves. Rose (Juliette Binoche) is a Beautician who has a one-way ticket to Mexico, she is desperately running away from a man she no longer loves.
As Félix, Reno gives a sullen performance as a man on the edge, caught between the chronic boredom of his life and the disappointment of a failed romance. His chemistry with Binoche is magnetic, and surprising, it's so much stronger than the Binoche-Depp pairing of Chocolat.
The revelation of the film however is Juliette Binoche' terrific turn as Rose. The beautician who hides behind a mask of colouful makeup and only becomes truly beautiful the day she removes it.
Binoche in her first successful comic role (in Chocolat afterall she was a more tragic figure) succeeds in creating a wonderfully funny and charming young woman, with an endearingly vunerable side. Time after time Reno feeds her the lines and she returns with the best moments of the film. Two parts which stand out are when Felix assumes Rose is a prostitute and when she discusses her make-up routine with him. Binoche will probably be César nominated for her role, and because this is such a change in direction for her she may even win.
The best thing about "Décalage Horaire" is that it is not merely sentimental, it's ironic tone is winning and much more interesting. Thompson's assured directon shows signs of maturity since "La buche", while her writing is as astute as ever.
The ending in mexico to the strains of Macy Gray's redoubtable "I try" is a memorable ending, for it's immediacy and it's pure sheer pleasure.
Viva la Binoche!
