Continuing where L'AUBERGE ESPAGNOLE left off, Russian DOLLS fast-forwards five years into the future and presents us a Xavier we thought we wouldn't be seeing: the professional who has a sordid job writing bad soap opera, far from the successful novelist he had originally planned to be, his life mired in confusion and hovering immaturity. At age thirty he has had unsuccessful relationships with women -- several of them who make their re-appearances from the previous film, among them Audrey Tautou (Martine) and Irene Montalá (Neus) -- and who fate seems to be directing him towards Wendy (Kelly Reilly) who is also involved in a self-destructive affair with a controlling nobody. Along the way, he reconnects with Isabelle in a cheeky sequence that could be a male's fantasy (as it involves lots of lesbians and Durin himself dons a dress and wig), but this leads him to a botched affair with Kassia (Aïssa Maïga) and the pursuit of superficial beauty under the persona of a supermodel (Lucy Gordon). Along the way we also see Wendy's brother William (Kevin Bishop) find love and marital happiness with the Russian ballerina Natascha (Evguyenya Obraztsova), and a reunion that finds all of the original cast members together. However, this is mainly Romain Durin, Kelly Reilly, and in a lesser way, Cecile de France's movie -- a fragmented soap opera that displays the continuing adventures of these young people as they move through life and try to find relative happiness in the adult world.
Review of Russian Dolls
