Forget Paris

My third attempt to watch this little gem of a movie - for some reason, although I have always wanted to, I never did get the opportunity to watch this movie - until last night. By some stroke of luck, this movie was playing on HBO and I seized my chance and recorded it (did I mention how much I cherish my DVR?).

The movie stars Billy Crystal as the hotshot basketball referee Micky Gordon and the awesomely talented Debra Winger as Ellen Andrews, an airline employee working in Paris - they meet in Paris where he is trying to inter his dead father and the airline loses the body. Paris works its magic and they fall in love. Their love story is narrated by one of their friends to his fiancee in a restaurant as they are waiting for the rest of the friends to join them (does this sound familiar? If yes, it's because in recent times Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na copied this aspect of the story - exchanging the restaurant for the airport). It's not all smooth sailing because it turns out that Ellen is married (but separated and confused) - once they get over that hurdle and she quits her job and moves back to the US to be with Mickey, she ends up resenting him for his job which entails a lot of traveling and so on. In short, it is a story of a marriage told in flashbacks - a marriage where two people love each other a lot but also struggle to hold on to their own individual identities, sometimes at the cost of their mutual happiness. Do they end up together or do the realities of life drive them apart?

Some of my favourite lines/moments from this movie are:

Andy: Marriages don't work when one partner is happy and the other is miserable. Marriage is about both people being equally miserable.

Mickey: You just had one of those 'I glued a bird to my head' days.

Mickey: [Mickey on finding out that Ellen is married] You don't do this to a person, you know? You don't walk around being fabulous when you know you're not available.

Mickey: [after finding out about Ellen's husband, still in shock] Is he French?
Ellen: Yes.
Mickey: Is he handsome?
Ellen: Yes.
Mickey: Is he rich?
Ellen: Yes.
Mickey: Does he have a sister?

Lucy: See they had a fundamental problem with their marriage - one is a man and the other a woman.

On his way to the IVF clinic, Micky hits a spot of traffic and gets ready for a bit of daring driving: Strapping the passenger-side seatbelt around the bag with his *stuff* in it screaming Hang On Boys was a laugh-worthy moment.

I liked this movie a lot - at the beginning, it is peppered with witty one-liners and good humour and the second half, while a bit serious, is still realistic with simply wonderful acting (which is at the same time suitably subtle and understated). You root for this couple to succeed because you can't help but identify with them - with their love for each other, their quarrels, their frustrations with themselves and each other. It's a great watch for the married folks for sure but it's also a fun watch for the single ones. Watch the movie for the screenplay and the acting and I am certain you will like it.