Good concept, poorly executed.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

How, given the cast, the fantastic combination of Jean Reno, the man who gave us Big Blue and redefined french cool, and Juliette Binoche, who has the cutest nose in cinema and is like a a dandelion blown away in the wind, how could this not be fantastic? Regrettably Jet Lag is just that: a conflict of taste and styles that never gels. There is some spark but no wit, and rom-com without wit is like champagne without the bubbles, effective but no fun.The chemistry is off-kilter and deliberately so, but too much so in the first 40 minutes - at no point were we convinced that circumstances, a travel strike, would be enough to throw these two mismatched souls together.The last third is better, with Jean Reno having the best moment in the film without Juliette Binoche...All in all it is watchable, but it is not enjoyable: the humour is too dry from this, and the set up too worked through, but most of all, you just don't buy it the way you would want too...A great shame.

Simple romantic comedy starring two of France best actors, Juliette Binoche and Jean Reno. The plot is simple: a man and woman meet at the airport while waiting for their flight. One is trying to get to Munich, the other to Acapulco. Stuck at the terminal, they continually stumble on each other. Soon enough they'll be spending the night together, but not in the way you think. Both Reno and Binoche have played in better films, but they still deliver a pretty solid performance. A great way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon inside. Seen at home, in Toronto, on October 22nd, 2006.72/100 (**)

You know you're in trouble when a song starts in the middle of a movie and the story stops developing for a while: They do so here because they want to stay faithful to the romcom genre and Décalage horaire / Jet Lag is a French take on a distinct American genre. This fails for several reasons, one of them being that the character and conversation-driven French movie is at odds with the light and caricature-driven American romcom-genre.It tells the story of Rose (Juliette Binoche) and Félix (Jean Reno) in a not too obvious way: Their background, problems and dreams come out one by one. Both have marriage troubles, a troubled relation with one of their parents and both have unfulfilled dreams. Rose is having terrible make-up on but seems to be excellent in make-up; Félix has set up a company of deep-frozen food he sells to supermarkets while his unfulfilled dream is it to become a star-studded chef. Rose and Félix regularly meet at the airport waiting for a plane to leave, a metaphor of their lives stuck by bad decisions (and mild criticism of the French public service always on strike). In the end they make relevant decisions, also about their relation to each other (with the genre in mind we all know what that means).The story is told in bits and pieces and it works as a means to keep us interested about their life stories. Also, the meetings they have don't shy away from being assertive, offensive or intrusive as they expect it is their only meeting. From the airport hotel on the movie goes off the genre track, and arrives in the usual French habit of long and uninteresting conversations. French people have a tendency for long and deep conversations about not too offensive and personal subjects as a way of courtesy and care for one's private life, so this is rather challenging stuff I guess.Most actors try comedy in their careers at least once. Most fail, so Binoche and Reno have nothing to be ashamed of. Décalage horaire is a failed attempt at light-hearted French comedy.

Jean Reno. Has he ever done a portrayal I wouldn't like? Probably, but so far, I haven't seen it. With longer hair, he even looks attractive - in between "fits". Well, speaking of fits, he and Juliette Binoche fit quite well here. Well done, well done, well done, Jean et Juliette.Unlike the users whose reviews I just browsed through, I am not a Juliette Binoche fan AT ALL. In the "Unbearable Lightness of Being", she did the most godawful concept of a female orgasm ever. I got the distinct impression she had never been present when a woman had ever climaxed. In "Chocolat" I kept looking at my lady love with a quizzical look of "Are you kidding?", and she reciprocated with a "My god, this is the most overrated movie of the year". And her part in "The English Patient" was a non-part, at least as she portrayed it.All that bashing over, FINALLY here is a part where all the hoopla about her shows some meat behind it. That it happens in a Rock Hudson-Doris Day type movie that could have been done in 1955 (not counting the movie's Best Supporting Actor candidate - Reno's cell phone) is remarkable. Maybe Binoche is an actress out of her time, who knows? Most folks apparently would disagree with me on that, but that IS my story, and I am sticking to it, come hell or high water - or French air traffic controllers on strike.I recommend this flic for a really good time at the movies, albeit showing on the small screen at your local living room. I call it a French flic rather than the usual "film", because it seems more American than French. I give it 7 stars out of 10, Reno a 9 and Binoche a 9. -2 for the flic due to fluff, but some of the best fluff out there. Normal flic fluff gets a -5!