Purely Joyful Movie!

Overrated

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

I have genuinely loved this movie! I've seen it many times, I rewatch it every time I need something sweet to soothe my soul...realistic, romantic, funny! Plus...let's NOT forget Paris...seeing the beautiful city really adds up to the movie charm! If you ever come across this one and aren't sure if it's worth watching, I hope my review will help you to just leave everything aside and press 'play'! Beautiful romantic comedy!

"Forget Paris" is on some ways reminiscent of the work of Woody Allen. Billy Crystal is, like Allen, a diminutive New Yorker who started as a stand-up comic before moving into acting, and his character in this film, Mickey Gordon, has something in common with Woody's self-deprecating creations. The story of Mickey and his wife, Ellen, is told in a series of flashbacks by a group of acquaintances over a meal in a restaurant; Allen had used a similar technique in his "Broadway Danny Rose" and was to do so again in "Melinda and Melinda", although in that film the stories told were invented ones.Mickey meets Ellen when he flies to France to bury his father, who has expressed the wish to be buried with his old Army comrades who were killed during the war. On arrival in Paris, however, Mickey finds that his father's coffin has been lost. Ellen is the airline official responsible for helping him find it. That sounds like the opening for a zany, screwball-type comedy or a macabre black comedy, but "Forget Paris" is neither. It is rather a romantic comedy with a difference. Most rom-coms are about courtship, and end with the marriage or engagement of the couple concerned. This one is as much about what comes after marriage as with what leads up to it; the marriage of Mickey and Ellen comes less than halfway through.After the missing coffin is found, Mickey and Ellen have a whirlwind romance in Paris, leading to their marriage and to her leaving her job in Paris to return with him to America. Paris in American films is typically the city of love and romance; one of these, "An American in Paris", is referred to a number of times. Mickey even sings one of the songs from that film, "Our Love is Here to Stay". The title, "Forget Paris", a phrase used a number of times in the course of their marriage, therefore becomes shorthand for "We've got to put the courtship phase of our relationship behind us and move on to dealing with the problems of married life together".And Mickey and Ellen have plenty of problems. They are unable to have children, and their relationship is put under stress by their contrasting lifestyles. Ellen, cultured and sophisticated, would prefer to live in Paris, but reluctantly agrees to return to America. Mickey is a basketball referee, which means that he spends much of the time travelling around America, leaving Ellen at home. She tries to persuade him to quit his job so that they can spend more time together, and this leads to quarrels between them. Further strain is caused by the arrival of Ellen's irritating elderly father Arthur. Eventually they separate, and Ellen returns to Paris. The title therefore takes on added significance; can Ellen forget Paris, or will she end up forgetting Mickey? Some reviewers have taken exception to the happy ending, such as James Berardinelli, who accused it of lacking "emotional honesty". Of course, it would have been quite possible to turn the story of Mickey and Ellen into a serious study of a failing marriage, but "Forget Paris" was never intended to be a film of that sort. In my view, a happy ending is the only one possible; an unhappy ending to a romantic comedy would be about as appropriate as a series of strident dissonances at the end of a Mozart symphony. And "Forget Paris" is clearly designed to be comic, not tragic.The two leading actors are very different in their styles of acting. As I stated, Billy Crystal started as a stand-up comedian, and specialises in comedies. (I would find it difficult to imagine him in a serious film). He was, of course, the star of "When Harry Met Sally", one of the best romantic comedies of the eighties. Debra Winger, on the other hand, is not an actress I would normally have associated with comedy. In early films such as "Cannery Row" or "An Officer and a Gentleman" she played attractive, vivacious characters, but she later became a rather intense actress, at her best in serious dramas like "Betrayed", "Shadowlands", "Black Widow" or "A Dangerous Woman". I never cared for that lugubrious romantic tragedy "Terms of Endearment", but the fact that Winger won a "Best Actress" Oscar suggests that a lot of other people liked it.The point of casting two such dissimilar actors may have been to emphasise the contrast in character between Mickey and Ellen, a contrast that would have been lessened if Ellen had been played by an experienced romantic comedy actress such as Meg Ryan, Crystal's co-star in "When Harry Met Sally". Winger's performance here suggests that she is not perhaps the world's most naturally gifted comedienne, but she still makes an endearing, if rather earnest, heroine. The difficulties in the Gordons' marriage may stem from the fact that Ellen is a fundamentally more serious person than Mickey, except perhaps where basketball is concerned. (Even the name Mickey, with its associations with Mickey Mouse and "taking the mickey", suggests someone less serious than a Michael or even a Mike). Crystal is very funny in this film, and most of the best lines go to him, although there are also some good contributions from the assembled diners. ("Marriages don't work when one partner is happy and the other is miserable. Marriage is about both people being equally miserable"- that one could be straight out of Woody Allen). There are also some great set pieces, such as the scene in the fertility clinic and the one where Ellen gets a pigeon stuck to her head. Overall, this is an amusing and likable romantic comedy. 7/10

I can see why Debra Winger went into a self-imposed exile after this tiresome 1995 studio product, as she looks ill-at-ease as a romantic comedy lead. Here is an accomplished actress who seizes roles with a palpable life force when she is in the right vehicle. However, Winger seems lost playing against the stand-up shenanigans of Billy Crystal, and consequently they never really connect in any believable way. Much of the blame has to be placed on Crystal, who not only starred but also directed and co-wrote the film with Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel. He seems intent on doing a retread of "When Harry Met Sally" but this time following a seemingly incompatible couple through marital discord.Crystal plays Mickey Gordon, an NBA referee who tries to abide by his estranged father's wishes to be buried in France. The airline has unfortunately lost the casket, and their Paris-based customer relations executive Ellen Andrews tries to correct things for Mickey. Of course, they fall in love since it is Paris, and they get married almost immediately. Complications ensue with Mickey on the road and Ellen unable to conceive a baby. The central conceit of the film is its framing device, a dinner where a group of their friends congregate and share their remembrances of Mickey and Ellen's courtship and marital problems. How they are able to relay such intimate details is never really addressed since it's a plotting contrivance we are supposed to accept.The other problem is that Crystal is not really acting here but performing his comedy routine as Mickey. Many of his lines sound overly familiar with many of the jokes having a forced feeling, and the role is virtually interchangeable with his Harry from the earlier film. Nevertheless, there are some truly funny bits, such as the running gag with Ellen's senile father (played by a befuddled William Hickey) repeating road signs in the car and the scene with the pigeon getting stuck to the side of Ellen's head. But it's not nearly enough. A solid supporting cast has been assembled as the friends - Joe Mantegna, Julie Kavner (particularly funny), Richard Masur, Cathy Moriarty, John Spencer, Cynthia Stevenson - though they act more like a chorus to the proceedings. The inevitable ending feels hollow since the relationship never felt that resonant. Despite some attempts at serious moments during the second half, this is the type of lightweight film that doesn't linger too long in one's memory. The 2000 DVD has no extras.

The movie starts in a strange way. A few famous basketball-players make their entrance to the movies, and i thought it was going to be a "love-story"? It gets there in some strange but very funny moves. Billy Crystal is the nice and funny person i like him to play. Debra Winger is the nice actress she is, but never becomes "Sally", although she sometimes looks even like her! The ups and downs of the movie keep it going where you don't expect it to go to. Overall i really liked the movie. No tearjerker movie or something like that. Just a solid romantic comedy like there are not so much of. Like i already said: I bit like "When Harry met Sally", still very nice. My vote 7/10