Life is complicated, and in the case of Xavier (Romain Duris), a successfulish Paris writer, it is more so. In writer/director Cédric Klapisch’s “Chinese Puzzle” [1] (2014), Xavier struggles to deal with the following:
- His wife Wendy (Kelly Reilly) leaves him, taking their children to New York to live with her new man.
- He comes to New York because he cannot stand being apart from his children. He has no job, he needs to get a job, but he cannot legally work in the States.
- His old girlfriend, Martine (Audrey Tautou), also comes to New York.
- He is the father of his lesbian friend Isabelle’s (Cécile De France) baby. Isabelle is raising the baby with her Chinese-American girlfriend Ju (Sandrine Holt).
Did I mention Xavier’s life is complicated? To further muddle up the plot, he marries a Chinese-American woman so he can get U.S. citizenship to stay in the country. The fake wedding will also help him better fight for legal authority over his children’s lives.
(image credit: RogerEbert.com/Chinese Puzzle)