VIEW FILM STILLS: Broken English VIEW PHOTOS: The cast at Sundance READ MORE: Speaking English with Parker Posey and Zoe Cassavettes

GLENN KENNY'S REVIEW (posted 6/20/07)

The dilemma facing Nora Wilder as Broken English opens is not a terribly unusual one: Nora's a smart, fun-loving urbanite who's in her early 30s and — can you guess? — has no serious romantic prospects. She also has a mother and a social circle who — can you guess? — are almost constantly demanding to know why she's not married.

Yes, the premise of the debut feature from writer-director Zoe Cassavettes is as old, if not older, than that notorious Newsweek cover story that claimed if a woman didn't wed by a certain age then her chances of being killed by a terrorist became greater than the probability that she would ever tie the knot. It's the stuff of countless advice columns, daytime talk shows, sitcoms, romantic comedies. Quite frankly, it's tired.

What makes a difference here — although really not enough of one — is the people. Nora's not played by a maturing starlet but by indie princess Posey. Nora's mom is not played by an over-the-hill sitcom mom but by indie queen Gena Rowlands (who happens to be the writer-director's mother; her father, as you might know, was the late John Cassavettes). By the time Nora is thrown over by the egocentric actor (Theroux) who's guesting at the hotel she works at and then is thrown for a loop by a charming Frenchman whose time in New York is not long (Poupaud), it's clear that English is quirkier and hipper than almost any comedy to take on this premise.

But it's still not quirky and hip enough to redeem the premise, and by the time Nora and best-pal Audrey impulsively fly to Paris to track down Nora's little Frenchman, the picture has all but exhausted its minor charms. A saving grace appears in the form of French film great Bernadette Lafont (Out 1, The Mother and the Whore), but anyone who knows her from her work will be let down by the cameo.

— Glenn Kenny