Wonderful character development!

A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Pretentious drivel. How on earth did they manage to spend so much making this film? Absolutely nothing to recommend it - not even Jim and Jeff's great talents could drag it beyond the banale.

My apologies to everyone who rated it highly; maybe I just missed the point. But I really, really did not enjoy this movie. I found the characters completely unlikeable, the situations frustrating and the ending totally ridiculous. I have never disliked Jim Broadbent in anything, until now. The "sniff" scene was especially revolting. The various "skipping-out" scenarios where the couple owed money to a restaurant or the hotel didn't make sense… maybe they would have if the shared experience had changed the characters or made them grow in some way, preferably towards one another, but nothing changed. They were the same miserable so-and-sos at the end that they were in the beginning, still ball-and-chained together. It would have been preferable for them to realize that they wanted to split up and gone their separate ways; that at least would have made sense.I'm sure the endless scenes filmed on staircases were supposed to be symbolic of something, but I haven't taken the trouble to try and figure out what. By the time they got to Goldblum's place and were trudging up the stairs with the elevator passing them on its way up, my only thought was how bloody stupid can you be, marching up endless stairs when there's a perfectly good elevator right there? The woman had to have had party shoes on; there's no way a sane woman in high heels goes for five or six flights of stairs if she has any choice in the matter. Unless she's a masochist. Hey, wait… maybe I just figured out the plot.Was there anything I did like? Sure. I liked that balcony in their hotel room that overlooked the Eiffel Tower, and I liked the teenage son of Jeff Goldblum's character, who seemed to be the only person around who had any idea what was going on. That's it.

Le Week-End (2013)A sensitive portrayal of a retiring older couple heading from England to France to celebrate their marriage. This is a quiet film, depending on the script and the acting of the two leads, as well as the American intrusion halfway through. And it doesn't hold up. It requires something extraordinary (see "L'Amour" or even "Before Sunrise") and the writing, as "normal" as it tries to be, is just another recounting of known empathies and responses.The acting is certainly naturalistic and believable, overall. It is only when Jeff Goldblum arrives as the brash, overly self-effacing, and rather suave American that see how truly dull this British couple is. Not that Goldblum's character is admirable, exactly, but more that the main couple is so stifled it's unbelievable.Eventually there is meant to be a kind of celebration and coming out, a breakthrough in everyone's personas (all three). The symbol for this is the famous, quirky dance (called the Madison, I hear) that we first see on a t.v. in a room, and then the characters actually "dance" this quaint number at the end. The poignancy is a given—too given, I think, but it's there, and if you've followed the very slow development of events you'll be glad for this, at least.So, not a great movie even though it has the tenderest and most lofty of intentions. The reference to the Madison, and the movie that made it famous, Godard's "Band of Outsiders," is a bit facetious. It forces playful seriousness on the characters, and on "Le Week-End," which has a title that should have been a clue to the striving and limitations of the final result. Too bad. The best of it is special, but the total effect is a bit dismissible.

Well acted and poignant at times, this movie just missed out on being great because it is too slow. Sure, I realise it's a slow burn, a noir, all that but, at the risk of repeating myself, it was just too damn slow! And, worse, no resolution. Goldblum is again great, I just wish his part had done something of substance rather than just seem lofty. Likewise the female lead whose terrific performance was marred by the writer's determination to paint her as a bitch (or at least almost). The lead actor is terrific as he always is, and that's the problem with him. He's the same as he always is. There's little originality here and he comes across as a (very) poor man's 'Lost in Translation'. Terrific cast, great idea,disappointing.