Paris

Slight of story but rich in character, Paris is a love letter to day-to-day life in the City of Light, seen through the perspectives of a dozen of its inhabitants (and many more peripheral characters) as they crisscross, ricochet, or lightly graze one another over the course of a few weeks. The film first introduces Élise (Juliette Binoche), a divorced single mother and social worker, and her brother Pierre (Romain Duris), a dancer diagnosed with a fatal heart disease. While the lonely Élise dodges crude passes and rude comments from men on the street, Pierre views the city from his apartment window and muses over the lives he glimpses. Paris casts its gaze further as well, following a history professor (Fabrice Luchini) who is suddenly enchanted by a beautiful young student (Mélanie Laurent), his anxiety-ridden brother (François Cluzet), and a conventionally gruff and earthy group of working-class men who sell produce at an open-air market. It's a lightweight mix of sprawling mosaic and intimate portrait that overcomes clichés and stereotypes thanks to a superb cast and affectionate tone. Writer-director Cédric Klapisch skips around from iconic landmarks (such as the Eiffel Tower) to neighborhood streets to such off-the-radar locations as the bustling night market in order to capture the film's distinctive title character—the postcard-beautiful city of Paris. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)