''Jet Lag'' (french: Décalage Horaire) is a 2002 French

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

film starring

Juliette Binoche Juliette Binoche (; born 9 March 1964) is a French actress and dancer. She has appeared in more than sixty feature films and has been the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Silver Bear, ...

and Jean Reno. It is the second film directed by

Danièle Thompson Danièle Thompson (born 3 January 1942) is a Monegasque film director and screenwriter. Thompson is the daughter of film director Gérard Oury, and actress Jacqueline Roman. She has written screenplays for a number of highly successful films ...

, following ''

Season's Beatings ''Season's Beatings'' (french: La Bûche) is a French comedy-drama film directed by Danièle Thompson, released in 1999. Plot Following the recent death of her second husband, for Christmas, Yvette tries to meet the three daughters from her fir ...

'' (1999).

Premise

Charles de Gaulle Airport Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (french: Aéroport de Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle, ), also known as Roissy Airport or simply Paris CDG, is the principal airport serving the French capital, Paris ( and its metropolitan area), and the largest intern ...

in Paris, a French beautician (Juliette Binoche) on her way to a new job in Mexico accidentally meets a French chef (Jean Reno) who has been delayed on his way to Germany from his residence in the United States. Labor strikes, bad weather, and pure luck cause the two of them to share a room overnight at the airport Hilton hotel. Their initial mutual indifference and downright hostility evolves into romance and a re-examination of their lives.

Cast

as Rose * Jean Reno as Félix *

Sergi López Sergi López may refer to: *Sergi López (actor) (born 1965), Spanish actor * Sergi López Segú (1967–2006), Spanish footballer See also * Sergio López (disambiguation) * Sergi, the given name *López López is a surname of Spanish origin. I ...

as Sergio * Scali Delpeyrat as The Doctor * Karine Belly as Air France Attendant * Raoul Billerey as Félix's Father *

Nadège Beausson-Diagne Nadège Beausson-Diagne (born 18 June 1972 in Paris) is a French actress, singer and columnist. She is mainly known for having played the police chief Sara Douala in the television series ''Plus belle la vie''. She also appeared in successful fi ...

as A Roissy Passenger *

Alice Taglioni Alice Taglioni (born 26 July 1976) is a French actress. Personal life Alice Taglioni was born in Ermont, Val-d'Oise. She is the daughter of an Italian man from Lombardy. She was Miss Corsica in 1996, but refused to participate in the election ...

as Ground Hostess * Jérôme Keen as The Concierge * Sébastien Lalanne as The Barman * Michel Lepriol as The Waiter * M'bembo as Post Office Employee (as Mbembo) * Laurence Colussi as Hostess * Lucy Harrison as Hostess * Rebecca Steele as Hostess

Production

Danièle Thompson originally wrote the script for

Miramax Films Miramax, LLC, also known as Miramax Films, is an American film and television production and distribution company founded on December 19, 1979, by brothers Harvey Weinstein, Harvey and Bob Weinstein, and based in Los Angeles, California. It was ...

in the early 1990s with

Isabelle Adjani Isabelle Yasmina Adjani ; born 27 June 1955) is a French actress and singer of Algerian and German descent. She is the only performer in history to win five César Awards for acting; she won the Best Actress award for ''Possession'' (1981), ''O ...

attached to star in an English-language version. Thompson obtained permission to film at

in Paris prior to September 11, 2001. After the terrorist attacks, permission was withdrawn. Thompson then obtained permission to use

Lourdes Airport Lourdes (, also , ; oc, Lorda ) is a market town situated in the Pyrenees. It is part of the Hautes-Pyrénées department in the Occitanie region in southwestern France. Prior to the mid-19th century, the town was best known for the Château f ...

, but was not convinced that viewers would believe it was Charles de Gaulle. Eventually she managed to gain 10 shooting days access to Paris. The rest was filmed on sets and in

Libby Airport Libby as a feminine given name is typically a diminutive form of Elizabeth, which is less commonly spelled 'Libbie' or ' Libi'. In recent years, it has been used as a shortened version of the name Liberty. As a surname, it can also be spelled ' ...

. ''Décalage Horaire'' is the second collaboration of mother and son writing team Danièle Thompson & Christophe Thompson after the 1999 film ''

La Bûche ''Season's Beatings'' (french: La Bûche) is a French comedy-drama film directed by Danièle Thompson, released in 1999. Plot Following the recent death of her second husband, for Christmas, Yvette tries to meet the three daughters from her firs ...

''. ''Décalage Horaire'' is one of the rare comedies in

's career, after ''

Les Nanas ''Les Nanas'' (''The Chicks'') is a 1985 French comedy with an entirely female cast, directed by Annick Lanoë. Plot Christine is in her forties when she learns that her partner Robert has been having an affair for the past few months. As a lib ...

(1985) ''

A Couch in New York ''A Couch in New York'' (french: Un divan à New York) is a 1996 romantic comedy film co-written and directed by Chantal Akerman. The plot centers on an anonymous exchange of apartments between a successful New York psychoanalyst (William Hurt) ...

'' (1995) and '' Chocolat'' (2000).

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 56%, based on 66 reviews, with an average rating of 5.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, " A light and fluffy romantic comedy for fans of Juliette Binoche and Jean Reno." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

the film has a score of 53 out of 100, based on 28 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Accolades

References

External links

* * {{Danièle Thompson 2002 films 2002 romantic comedy films Films directed by Danièle Thompson Films produced by Alain Sarde Films scored by Éric Serra Films set in airports 2000s French-language films French romantic comedy films 2000s French films