大象传媒

Five years on from the surprise success of writer/director C茅dric Klapisch's Pot Luck comes this similarly underwhelming sequel Russian Dolls. The student twentysomethings who were sharing a flat in Barcelona on an international exchange programme are now scattered across Europe. Klapisch has rounded up another impressive cast - including struggling author Romain Duris, environmental campaigner Audrey Tautou, screenwriter Kelly Reilly and financial journalist C茅cile de France - yet saddles them with a sporadically amusing and disappointingly superficial script.

Hopping between Paris, Primrose Hill, Moscow and St Petersburg (the latter being a location for a wedding attended by the group), Russian Dolls examines the emotional dilemma experienced by Duris's Frenchman Xavier, who's searching for his dream woman on the cusp of his 30th birthday. Should he commit to the cute, warm and funny Wendy, with whom he's collaborating on a made-for-television screenplay Passionate Love in Venice? Or should he declare his feelings for the stunning if shallow model Celia (Lucy Gordon), whose autobiography he's ghostwriting?

"SOME BURSTS OF MAGIC REALISM"

This is a film that's more than happy to pick on soft targets, such as the predictability of populist dramas - "Don't be afraid of cliches," urges one of Xavier's bosses, "everyone likes postcards and sunsets" - and the vacuousness of the fashion world, whilst preaching platitudes about accepting others' imperfections in matters of the heart. Shooting on digital video, Klapisch plays around with film speeds and split screens and chronological structure and throws in some bursts of magic realism. But there's a revealing coyness about what actually goes on between the sheets of these beautiful people.