The fortunate amongst us, meet the person of their dreams/soul mate perhaps on the playground of their first school and go onto live a life of bliss. The unfortunate amongst us, face a life time ordeal, full of false dawns, deceptions, and heart ache. What a messy minefield, the “dating process” is.

The setting is New York, the chief protagonist is Dora, (Parker Posey) acting admirably and leading the film throughout. Somehow time has passed and despite the promptings of her friend Audrey (Andrea Donna de Matteo) and her pushy mother (Gena Rowlands) she is still searching for the man, she craves, as her sell by date moves ever closer. Dora is a woman with a melancholic disposition, infused by her lack of a man, which is tipping her over the edge of hopelessness.

As the story unrolls we see some of her forlorn encounters, we are teased into thinking she has met the right man, when with further enlightenment, it is revealed she is either being two timed, or her date has not got over his previous relationship. She is well past the point of despair and would welcome another date, with the relish of somebody having a rendezvous with a psychopathic dentist, when she meets Julian, a confident Frenchman, intent on sweeping her off her feet. At first she is defensive, tightening up like a clam, not wishing to fall into the trap, she has fallen into on so many of her previous dates.

Perhaps there are cultural differences, as to dating, at play, Julian is a different proposition. However once her defences are down and their relationship develops, the fear of messing this relationship up sends her into a frenzied panic. Her fragility is such, she relies on pills and alcohol to see her through.

Like in all tragic love stories, Julian is bidden back to France and despite their acquaintance being short, Dora is soon packing her bags and the final action to this unresolved liaison takes place in Paris. The are the odd surprises that happen during this new adventure for Dora and her eyes are opened, her existence in New York, having grown stale. We get sniffs of French men’s attitudes towards woman. There is snippets of humour, French pronunciation of English sometimes being the source, “hungry” comes out as “angry”. As the occasional linguistic confusion takes hold.

We are not talking a cinematic masterpiece with this film, but the film is refreshing, there are stylistic similarities to Woody Allen films, and Parker Posey is a stalwart.

For those in Dora’s predicament, feelings of empathy are in order and those smug in a relationship, well they can afford a chuckle at the dating misery of those less fortunate.

Francis H. Powell is originally from England and moved to Paris in 1999. In addition to being a writer (articles, songs and poems), he is a painter, DJ and English trainer. For more information, please click here to read his complete bio.

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