'Le Divorce' is definitely a chick-flick
Le Divorce
James Ivory
Kate Hudson, Naomi Watts, Leslie Caron, Glenn Close, Stephen Fry.
If The Italian Job is one for the lads, Le Divorce is definitely la chic-chick flick. Kate Hudson (yes, Goldie’s gal) plays a young American woman who travels to Paris to visit her pregnant stepsister (Watts). Turns out big sis has been abandoned by her French hubby in favour of an eastern European filly, leaving Watts to divvy up the marital belongings and deal with the prickly in-laws. And so the scene is set for some sophisticated musings on the differences between French and American cultures.
A dizzying array of characters and sub-plots come and go adding little to the film’s premise. One such twist, unsurprisingly, sees the flighty Hudson embroiled in an affair with a Gallic père de sucre (what is French for sugar daddy). As with Sabrina, that other French-US study of manners, it’s the transformation of a young American girl intoxicated by the allure and sophistication of gay Paree that is film’s real centrepiece. Playing its part, too, is Hudson’s to-die-for red Hermes ‘Kelly’ bag; a subtle nod, peut-être, to their French cousins that it takes true Hollywood Royalty to inject panache and glamour into an otherwise laissez-faire lifestyle.
3/5
