Nights with Theodore

Writer-director Sebastien Betbeder's Nights with Theodore is a flimsy bit of whimsy centering on Parisian couple Theodore (Pio Marmai) and Anna (Agathe Bonitzer), who become obsessed with spending their nights together at the Buttes Chaumont park in the City of Lights' 9th district, where the woods, a grotto, and the Temple of Sibylle—which is rumored to contain mystical powers—draws them in. The park's precise hold on the pair is never made clear: Theodore and Anna simply hop a fence after dark, and do a little exploring and play-acting (calling one another “Count” and “Countess”), but there's no real sense of magic or even heightened experience here. Betbeder's nocturnal images are fuzzy and uninspired, and the lovers are so laconic that it's impossible to know what actually stirs them about their after-hours adventures (and Theodore's recurring problems with asthma don't add anything of significance). Even the sudden appearance of New Age types crashing the duo's private party ultimately does little to bring much extra energy to this big blank of a film. Not recommended. (T. Keogh)