Better Late Then Never

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

I don't understand why this movie isn't more popular. William Hurt plays wonderfully sensitive and sincere. Juliette Binoche is charming and natural. The story is like a book. And the filmmakers and photographers have caught the moments just right. The lines and words are not pathetic: they are intelligent and honest.I love this film. I have seen it several times and Cole Porters "Night and day" suits the film and actors really well. I give this film top score for seeing the special art and beauty of living. Few movies catches the small deatils like this one: In colours, quite comfortable moments, moods, real life-pictures and honest life-image. Thank you very much, filmmakers, actors, storytellers, composers and photographers for reminding us how beautiful life can be.

In spite of its thin premise about the unexpected effects of an apartment exchange this is a movie of gentle and charming fantasy as the two characters find themselves becoming entangled in each other's lives. Although the plot is predictable from that point on, the execution of it is funny and some of the observations about people are pointedly accurate. Add to that a good use of the New York cityscape and this is a great movie to spend a rainy afternoon (or evening) with.

Ackerman (director) is one of our most respectable women directors in Belgium. I never knew she made this film and as one person mentioned, if you live in low budget Belgium film country and you can make a movie with Binoche and Hurt, who would not jump out of his chair.The story line is unbelievable but I don't care, so was Matrix I. To say that Binoche can't act, as I read somewhere on this forum is a great understatement. It would NOT have been better with Julia Roberts.Actually we could have been watching this sort of comedy at the theater. It's certainly low budget (except for the wages of the stars) 90 % is filmed indoors at the same locations.I could not believe this was an Ackerman movie. She is very much known as a detailed dialogue women. Once in a while we see this happen, but then it does not fit in this movie. This movie needs action, swift editing etc. Remember Barefoot in the Park? That one worked, for some reason this doesn't. Problem is I cannot put my finger on what it was that disturbed me: not the actors, not the story, not the locations. I very personally think Ackerman had to give in to make this production, she would have made a totally different film with disturbing dialogues but she was not allowed to do so.Conclusion: I love all the work of Ackerman but she should never have done this one. A couch in New York needs more spark.No hard feelings, Chantal.PS: I have to share this with you. My husband walked in after 30 minutes and saw William Hurt in Binoche's flat. His one and only comment was: You're watching a movie with Hurt in Paris? Yep he did recognize Hurt and Paris in one shot. I'm getting tired of attics and attic views. Paris has changed a bit. I'm sure this is again an American must.

The basic tension of opposites attract is carried out in an exquisitely delicate manner. A New York psychiatrist exchanges apartments with a woman in Paris. He is orderly tidy controlled. She is - well opposite. He moves into her disheveled apartment complete with bad plumbing, a roof in disrepair and the importunities of her crazed lover. She moves into his and is beset by his patients demanding to be treated. She obliges and with the help of her friend (who has had analysis) learns to say "uh huh" and repeat the last word of the patient's sentences. They get better. His dog is happier. A nice point is he is shown as competent as her lover starts to feel better when talking to him. This is the last straw that drives him back to New York.He can't go back to his apartment, but stops by, sees his patients coming out looking better. Fascinated, he makes an appointment. The relationship unfolds.The cool thing about this movie is it is not forced like so many modern comedies.You realize how strident such recent comedies such as "One Fine Day" and "Fools Rush In" are in comparison.So wonderfully delicate.