Forget Paris (1995)

(In French, On Cable TV, August 2022) At times, I was struck by how Forget Paris is the most average Woody Allen movie that Woody Allen never directed. That’s a terrible comparison, but it’s not without justification. Consider, for instance, the framing device of having people talk about acquaintances in a restaurant, with the next phases of those discussed acquaintances’ lives being revealed by new arrivals to the dining party. Consider the plot’s globetrotting to Paris (anticipating Allen’s European period) and several American cities. Consider the film’s emphasis on verbal dialogue as the engine for a bittersweet romantic comedy. Consider the basketball background, the neurotic Jewish protagonist, the intended adult audience, the narrative tricks and the amiable tone. Of course, trying to be Allen doesn’t mean you succeed in being Allen, and while writer-producer-director-star Billy Crystal delivers a film that’s not terrible, Forget Paris is not all that memorable either. While some of the early scenes have some zest to them, the film seems to run on increasingly emptier material the longer it goes on through the break-ups and reconciliations, with some third-act turns feeling like they’re stretching the premise with increasingly stock elements. Much of the basketball cameos were completely wasted on me, but I’m sure they represent a good time capsule of who was who in the NBA as of the mid-1990s. I did like Debra Winger a lot in the female lead role—meanwhile, no one else could have played the role that Crystal wrote for himself. Forget Paris is funny and sweet enough to avoid grumbling, but there’s a feeling that Crystal would have been better-served by focusing on the oddest facets of his script all the way to the end rather than rely lazily on familiar plot elements in running out the clock.