I’m in a weird position with Under the Eiffel Tower. I didn’t hate it. Matt Walsh, to my mind uncharacteristically*, is super charming, and Judith Godrèche is luminous and wonderful, and when the movie maintains a strict focus on just the two of them kibbitzing and canoodling through wine country and along French cobblestone streets, it’s kinda lovely. The problem, apart from how badly the movie begins and ends, is that there’s too much extraneous nonsense distracting from what actually works here.
I hate using the bathtub simile, but watching this movie’s like sliding into a warm bathtub. You’ll relax, maybe drift off, have a pleasant time, and when you’re done you won’t remember most of it except for your moment of peak rejuvenation. Everything else, down the drain.
You can read my full review over at Paste Magazine.
*Totally possible Walsh has played this kind of character before, but this kind of character just isn’t what I think of when I think of Walsh.
A Constant Visual Feast 