''Chinese Puzzle'' (french: Casse-tête chinois) is a 2013 French

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

film written and directed by

Cédric Klapisch Cédric Klapisch ( ; born 4 September 1961) is a French film director, screenwriter and producer. Life and career Klapisch was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine. He is from a Jewish family; his maternal grandparents were deported to Ausc ...

. It is the third chapter of the ''Spanish Apartment trilogy'', after ''

L'Auberge Espagnole ''L'Auberge Espagnole'' (; literally: "the Spanish inn"), also known as ''Pot Luck'' (UK) and ''The Spanish Apartment'' (Australia), is a 2002 French-Spanish film directed and written by Cédric Klapisch. It is a co-production of Mate Production ...

'' (2002) and '' Les Poupées russes ''(''Russian Dolls'', 2005).

Plot

Ten years have passed, and the once happy lovers, Xavier Rousseau (

Romain Duris Romain Duris (; born 28 May 1974) is a French actor. He is known for his role in Cédric Klapisch's ''Spanish Apartment'' trilogy, which consists of '' L'Auberge Espagnole'' (2002), '' Russian Dolls'' (2005), and '' Chinese Puzzle'' (2013). He al ...

) and Wendy (

Kelly Reilly Jessica Kelly Siobhán Reilly (born 18 July 1977) is an English actress. She first appeared on screen in 1995 on the series '' The Biz''. Her other television work includes starring roles in the British crime drama '' Above Suspicion'' (2009– ...

), have split. When she moves with their two children to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, he also moves there to be near the children. Wendy now lives with John ( Peter Hermann) in a luxury apartment overlooking Central Park. Xavier initially stays with Isabelle (

Cécile de France Cécile de France (; born 17 July 1975) is a Belgian actress. After achieving success in French cinema hits such as '' L'Art (délicat) de la séduction'' (2001) and ''Irène'' (2002), she gained international attention for her lead roles in ''H ...

) and Ju (

Sandrine Holt Sandrine Claire Holt (born Sandrine Vanessa Ho; 19 November 1972) is a British-born Canadian model and actress. Early life Holt was born Sandrine Vanessa Ho in Croydon. Her middle name was later changed to Claire. Her father, Man Shun ("Horace ...

), a lesbian couple whose child he fathered, but he soon finds his own apartment above a Chinese bakery where he works on a new novel assisted by brief visions of

Arthur Schopenhauer Arthur Schopenhauer ( , ; 22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher. He is best known for his 1818 work ''The World as Will and Representation'' (expanded in 1844), which characterizes the phenomenal world as the prod ...

and

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...

. Having no work visa, Xavier is advised by his lawyer ( Jason Kravits) to seek illegal employment and marry for a green card. After saving his taxicab driver from a vicious beating, the driver's grateful Chinese-American family agrees to have Xavier marry one of their relations, Nancy ( Li Jun Li), who is amenable and complicit. His former French girlfriend, Martine (

Audrey Tautou Audrey Justine Tautou (; born 9 August 1976) is a French actress. She made her acting debut at the age of 18 on television and her feature film debut in '' Venus Beauty Institute'' (1999), for which she received critical acclaim and won the Cés ...

), visits him while on a business trip and returns a second time with her own two children on spring break. Xavier and Martine briefly attempt to rekindle their relationship. The film climaxes when the

Immigration and Naturalization Service The United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was an agency of the U.S. Department of Labor from 1933 to 1940 and the U.S. Department of Justice from 1940 to 2003. Referred to by some as former INS and by others as legacy INS, ...

performs a surprise inspection of Xavier's apartment while Isabelle is using it to cheat on Ju with their babysitter ( Flore Bonaventura). Later as Martine is departing for home with her kids, Xavier races on foot to catch her shuttle bus, confess his love, and ask her to stay and live with him. She agrees. The film concludes with the cast of characters walking in a celebratory parade down a

Chinatown A Chinatown () is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Austr ...

street.

Cast

as Xavier Rousseau *

as Wendy *

as Martine *

as Isabelle *

as Ju * Flore Bonaventura as Isabelle the babysitter * Jochen Hägele as Hegel *

Benoît Jacquot Benoît Jacquot (; born 5 February 1947) is a French film director and screenwriter who has had a varied career in European cinema. Life and career Born in Paris, Jacquot began his career as assistant director of Marguerite Duras films, inclu ...

as Xavier's father * Martine Demaret as Xavier's mother *

Dominique Besnehard Dominique Besnehard (; born 5 February 1954) is a French actor, film producer, casting director, writer and talent manager. He has appeared in more than 80 films and television shows since 1975. He starred in the 1983 film '' À nos amours'', wh ...

as the editor * Zinedine Soualem as Mr. Boubaker * Peter Hermann as John * Jason Kravits as Xavier's lawyer * Vanessa Guide as the nurse *

Kyan Khojandi Kyan Khojandi (born 29 August 1982) is a French comedian, actor and screenwriter born to a French mother and an Iranian father. He is best known for playing the main character in the television series '' Bref'', which was broadcast on Canal+ fr ...

as Antoine Garceau * Li Jun Li as Nancy * Pablo Mugnier-Jacob as Tom * Margaux Mansart as Mia * Adrian Martinez as Le patron coursier *

Peter McRobbie Peter McRobbie (born 31 January 1943) is a Scottish-born American character actor, best known for his roles as John C. Twist in the 2005 romantic drama film '' Brokeback Mountain'', Mike Sheenan in the 2006 action film ''16 Blocks'', Pop Pop J ...

as L'agent bureau immigration *

Larry Fessenden Laurence T. Fessenden (born March 23, 1963) is an American actor, producer, writer, director, film editor, and cinematographer. He is the founder of the New York based independent production outfit Glass Eye Pix. His writer/director credits inclu ...

as Le premier rocker

Reception and awards

The film garnered favourable reviews. It scored a 78% 'certified fresh' rating on review aggregation website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, based on 64 reviews, with a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

of 6.52/10. The site's consensus states: "Pleasantly easygoing and consistently funny, Chinese Puzzle offers a suitably endearing conclusion to Cédric Klapisch's Trilogy of Xavier." At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc D ...

, it has a score of 64 which is based on 24 critics, indicating "Generally favorable reviews". The film was nominated for the Best Music award at the

39th César Awards The 39th Annual César Awards ceremony, presented by the French Academy of Cinema Arts and Techniques ( Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma), was held on 28 February 2014, at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. '' Me, Myself and Mum'' r ...

, and came second for the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at the 57th

San Francisco International Film Festival The San Francisco International Film Festival (abbreviated as SFIFF), organized by the San Francisco Film Society, is held each spring for two weeks, presenting around 200 films from over 50 countries. The festival highlights current trends in i ...

References

External links

* *
''Chinese Puzzle''
at

''Chinese Puzzle''
at

Official US trailer (Cohen Media Group)

Official US site (Cohen Media Group)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chinese Puzzle 2013 films 2013 romantic comedy-drama films Films directed by Cédric Klapisch Films set in New York City French romantic comedy-drama films 2010s French-language films Lesbian-related films 2013 comedy films 2013 drama films 2010s English-language films 2013 multilingual films French multilingual films 2010s French films Foreign films set in the United States