Wow, what a letdown
After all that, I was almost hoping that Travis was going to shoot everybody (including himself) or toss them out the window and then jump. Hmm.
Okay, maybe not that exactly, but what is the big deal about this film? Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy slow-moving talky types of movies. The Straight Story is a good one that comes to mind (Stanton is in that one oddly enough, though very briefly). Lone Star is another great movie that's pretty low on action but the writing and acting are brilliant in my opinion.
The thing about "Paris" that left me cold were the characters. They might as well have been cardboard cutouts. I didn't find myself giving a damn about any of them except for Anne which I thought was played well by Aurore Clement (who is so beautiful anyway). Stanton walked around like a retard most of the time, and even the kid didn't seem to care one way or the other. I love the comment he makes to one of his schoolmates when he asks him why he has two dads. "Just lucky I guess." Boy, brilliant writing there. And Stockwell could have just phoned in his part.
By the time we get to the scene where Travis tells us all what happened, it's really too late to care. And by the way, why in the world would his wife not recognize his voice until then? And why would he really bother to tell her all of that crap (except to tell us)? Wouldn't he just say "Hey, your kid's out here, do you want him or not?"
The whole movie just falls flat on its face in my opinion.