One of my all time favorites.

As Good As It Gets

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

. . . whimsy alert though. 20 little mismatched hip movies, some awfully clever, some sweet, about the world's prettiest big city. Altogether it's too long (as these things always are) but one can fast forward, pick and choose.Gus Van Sant's and Wes Craven's pieces are my faves.And ten stars just for showing Père Lachaise Cemetery, and me screaming, 'Oh please go to Oscar Wilde's tomb!' -- and the movie following my request immediately! Yes! Pure movie super-real magic!

I felt this film catered very much to an American market, but within that, it took risks and didn't take itself too seriously. It was refreshing to see a different side of Paris with Steve Buscemi getting mugged. I, too, have been to one of those Metro stations where things can get quite seedy and you find yourself alone. The story about the Spanish girl forced to leave her baby to be an au pair to a rich woman across town was also quite unusual and illuminating. The mime sequence was silly, but it was funny. The vampire sequence was just silly. Natalie Portman's episode as the American dating a blind man was quite moving. Maggie Gyllenhaal's segment as a drug addicted actor was also moving and an interesting take on an actor abroad. I found the final segment of the American tourist (Margo Martindale) unexpectedly moving. She is enthralled by all the tourist sights, with a voice-over of her giving a talk about it to her French class back home. Here was someone with a genuine affection for Paris and for France. Sure it was kitsch and her French was crude, but it really rang true, and it went beautifully with the film's theme of a love story -- for her, love was having a picnic in the park with a sandwich in Paris. And it was not a bad thing to do at all.

Paris, je t'aime, is an interesting melange of 18 vignettes directed by a host of different directors. Naturally, certain sequences are considerably more affecting than others. "Loin du 16ieme" is a rather profound look at the divide between rich and poor, as well as between native-born French women and the emigres imported to be their servants. "Quartier de la Madeleine" is a very powerful portrait of a drugged-out actress and her boyfriend/pusher. "Faubourg Saint-Denis" is a moving portrait of a young, frivolous actress (Natalie Portman), who plays with and then abandons a blind admirer. Many other sequences seem either incomplete ("Les Marais") or incomprehensible ("Porte de Choisy") but, on the whole, there are more good moments than bad in this film.My disagreement with all those who have commented on this movie favorably is that somehow this movie is supposed to make its viewers love and and admire Paris and perhaps long to visit the "city of lights". But the Paris shown in this film is in large measure an alcoholic, drugged-out, impoverished, and decadent society essentially living off the glories of its past. The only even remotely enthusiastic characters in the film are the Americans and Englishmen who are visiting: the French characters seem depressed, washed up, and largely incapable of action. I am sure that Paris remains an inspiring and beautiful city -- as it has been through the centuries. But one would never know it from watching this sorrowful portrait of a once glorious city on the way out. Love this Paris? Really?

OK, well I didn't actually vomit, but wanted to. A couple months ago, I thought I saw the worst movie in years. Now it's a toss up between that one and "Paris Je T'aime."With all the talented directors each creating a 5-6 minute story -- that is, a 5-6 minute short film that will be unrelated to all the others, except in locale, one would THINK that some of these would be good, if not most of them. And if you thought this, you'd be wrong. At least 15 of these 18 short films are the most horrible pieces of trash I've seen in years. My God, one can attend any film festival anywhere in this country, and it would be hard pressed to see a short film at a festival that would be as bad as what's in "Paris Je T'aime," I kid you not.The producers of this trash should have exercised *some* control over approving what the directors were doing. It appears as though they gave the directors 'x' amount of money and said "go do what you want." In fact, if one didn't know any of these directors' prior movies and saw their work here, you'd think these filmmakers were untalented hacks that shouldn't be given money for film. Their work here is that BAD. And NONE of them, save maybe 1 or 2, could actually tell a frickin' story in the time alloted. Amazing this turd of a film was given money and produced.And the title for this heap of toilet water? It comes from the very last short film of the bunch, about a woman who falls in love with Paris the city -- which has NOTHING to do with any of the other pieces, nor is there any "through line" of love toward Paris in the entire movie. A ludicrous and stupid title.