Paris When It Fizzles

Michelle Pfeiffer stars in French Exit, a dry comedy of manners.

A MANHATTAN widow (Michelle Pfeiffer) on the verge of going dead broke decides to go out with a bang by taking her college-age son (Lucas Hedges) on one last cruise to Paris. When she runs out of money, her plan is to shuffle off this mortal coil in a blaze of martini-swilling glory. Azazel Jacobs’ droll comedy of manners provides a meaty role for Pfeiffer, who gives us exactly what we want — all the brash countenance of a woman playing at an aristocracy that’s no longer hers, within a movie that, with all its surrealist touches (see: a dead husband reincarnated into a cat; a psychic who can communicate with the feline), gives the star room to play. And yet French Exit is an all-too-frequently lifeless affair; even with writer Patrick DeWitt adapting his own novel, something vital gets lost in translation. Rather than sharp-witted ennui, we get a dose of enervation.