Passe-passe (2008) - film review

It is Fate that brings together Darry Marzouki, an unemployed conjuror, and Irène Montier Duval, a bourgeois beauty with a bag stuffed with high denomination banknotes.  Irène takes an instant liking to Darry and explains that she was to have served as an intermediary in the sale of arms between a French minister and Korea.  The minister has betrayed her so she is out for revenge, hopefully with Darry’s assistance...

Passe-passe is Tonie Marshall’s affectionate homage to the classic American road movie, a meandering, pretty lightweight affair that tries unsuccessfully to weave together genres as diverse as romantic comedy and political thriller (complete with sinister-looking Orientals with an unhealthy addiction to Frank Sinatra).   Marshall’s forte is obviously romantic comedy, evidenced by the fact that the scenes which work best are those in which Nathalie Baye and Edouard Baer, both superb as ever, are allowed to spark off one another, with something of the energy and charm of an old Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn movie. 

Had the film stuck with Baye and Baer, instead of digressing every few minutes down threadbare narrative cul-de-sacs involving less interesting characters that add little, if anything, to the narrative, it might just have worked.  As it is, these irksome digressions weaken the film considerably and merely draw our attention to the weaknesses of the screenplay - superficial characterisation, a plethora of dated clichés and a breathtaking lack of structure.  Thanks primarily to the efforts of its leads (and a creditable performance from rap performer Joey Starr) Passe-passe just about manages to snatch our indulgence and stave off boredom, but the ride isn’t as comfortable as it might have been if Marshall had exercised the same rigour as on some of her previous films.

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