Three movies in and Xavier is still trying to get his life together.
Romain Duris returns as the globe-trotting, follow-his-bliss French novelist in “Chinese Puzzle,” Cédric Klapisch‘s third film in a series that began in Spain with the comedy “L’Auberge Espagnole” in 2002. This time — following an outing to St. Petersburg in “Russian Dolls” — Xavier finds himself in New York, pursuing a life with the children that his ex, played by Kelly Reilly, took to the Big Apple.
He’s got to start over once again, and finds that life in New York is less like an Alicia Keys anthem than a constant march past places you can’t enter and people who won’t look at you. The skyline is iconic, but it’s just as out of reach for the people who work below it as those that see it only on postcards. After all, the rent is insane.
Hang in there, Xavier. Bill de Blasio is mayor now.
