Old high school friends Fanny and Alain meet again on a city street. They become smitten and they begin an affair. As they fall closer together the people around Fanny realize that there may be something wrong with Alain, and that he may have killed some people.
Woody Allen returns with his 50th film and it's a mixed bag. While not as bad as some of the films that preceded RIVKIN'S FESTIVAL it does suffer from the problem of the last five or six films, namely Woody is writing films that are unconnected to reality and poorly plotted.
The problem with the plotting is it doesn't feel remotely like real life or most representations of it. It feels as it's entirely the work of someone who has been locked away with only dime novels to read. What we are seeing, and how people react to each other doesn't seem real but more the sort of thing we see on a soap opera. People behave as they do because it's the only way to keep things moving. Fanny doesn't believe warnings about Alain until she does, which is the point where it will help the suspense. What's worse is the balance between comedy and drama is wonky. (And Allen's once laugh out loud humor falls flat)
Part of me wants to pick on how Woody directs the film, it's filled with almost every one of his stylistic touches you see in his New York City films except moved to France. But that would be incredibly unfair since Woody hasn't changed his style since his first film, so I can't complain at the 50th.
The truth of the matter is that COUP DE CHANCE isn't bad film, but it really is remarkable. If it wasn't made by Woody Allen there is a good chance it wouldn't have gotten a release on its own. It would have ended up released as part of package deal of French films and played at 3am on cable as filler, if at all.
Again, the film isn't bad. It's just nothing special.
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