Lost in Paris review – laborious jollity

Pierre Richard and Emmanuelle Riva in Lost In Paris: ‘never takes flight’. Photograph: Arrow Films

The thing about quirky physical comedy is that it needs to be so light on its feet as to be practically weightless. Unfortunately, for all the photogenic Parisian trappings, the riverside tango and Eiffel Tower slapstick, the laborious jollity of the latest film from Fiona Gordon and Dominique Abel (Rumba) never takes flight.

Gordon plays a Canadian librarian who is summoned to Paris to save her much-loved aunt from an old people’s home. Abel is the lovelorn tramp who finds and plunders her missing backpack. Admittedly, there’s a sinewy fluidity to the choreography of their set pieces together. However, this just serves to highlight the lack of fluency in dialogue, which is as delicate as a concrete boot.

Watch the trailer for Lost in Paris.