Perfect cast and a good story

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

This is a lovely follow-up on L'Auberge espagnol. Nobody who enjoyed that should miss this. Especially if, like me, you like films that catch you up with characters you'd enjoyed before like Before Sunset/Before Sunrise. I wouldn't call this a sequel in the sense that it's a rehashing of the original film. Rather, it's a continuation or follow-up on the story. Loved it.If this sounds intriguing to you, it's great. But for the proper full effect, watch L'Auberge first.In all honesty, I now find myself saddened by the thought that M Klapisch may be done with them now. I hope that, in a few years, we get to see these old friends again. Only this time, get a better distribution company in the US. Unlike L'Auberge espagnol (which I saw at the cinema), if it weren't for Netflix, I wouldn't have known this film existed. I keep making deals with myself that I won't buy any more DVDs because we know they'll be obsolete in a few years, but here's another one I'll buy.

Well,I like the acting of Romain Duris and since L'Auberge Espagnole was a nice movie I was quite eager to watch Les Poupeés Russes.In general, I like the movie.There are not many movies that elaborate in such a way about European life and people in Europe.However like in L'Auberge Espagnole, I have some difficulties of understanding the logic of the director.Well talking about so deep things like love, how can they be so superficial about some facts about life?Well, the thing is, Romain Duris in the movie sleeps with many girls. And when she goes to kookai and meets the French girl from Senegal he says that it's the first time he approaches a girl in such a way.You think that he's a naive guy and if that's the first time he does such a thing, what is the logic behind him sleeping with many girls..This I really do not get!The director creates a somewhat inconsistent character.Secondly,when Wendy's brother is marrying, there are only Wendy's friends whom he met in Barcelona for the wedding.Well, that's one thing I hate about movies!Doesn't this guy have any other friends?And in the first movie most of the people didn't like him at all but eventually just so that they'll be together in St.Petersburg, the director brings them together there.This is really superficial.I think that the directors should think about those kinds of details.Those were 2 things that caught my attention and L'Auberge Espagnole also had those kinds of flaws.However overall, I must say that I like the movie

"L'auberge espagnole", although not flawless and very low-key, is probably one of the best films about nostalgia ever made. In "Les poupées russes", the main character of both films, Xavier (Duris), has coped well with his post-Erasmus nostalgia. However, what seemed, at the end of "L'auberge", to be both a cure and a new beginning has turned out to be much less of the latter. Xavier is nearly thirty and his life still badly needs focus.The film follows Xavier from Paris to London to Moscow to Saint-Petersburg, examining relationships with his ex-Erasmus friends (many of whom look like they got a hold on life better than himself), his ex-girlfriend Martine (Tautou) and various new lovers. The sceneries are exciting and the characters are crafted perhaps with even more care and sincerity than in "L'auberge" (the Duris-Tautou "still friends" duo is a delight) - but the romantic allure of "L'auberge" served well to smoothen the rough edges and dilute the film's hard-boiled message - writer-director Cédric Klapisch is definitely a man of ideas more than anything else. "Les poupées" is no less cerebral, but with the grown-up life being what it is, there's much less in the film to get carried away with - meaning that at times it becomes more of a philosophical drama than a romantic comedy. And for that purpose, perhaps the philosophical message that the film tries to convey - that letting go of dreams is a sad, but necessary part of growing up - is simply not strong enough.

Cédric Klapisch showed his breadth as a filmmaker when, in 1996, he completed two wonderful films in starkly contrasting genres and styles: "Chacun cherche son chat" ("When the Cat's Away"), an endearing light comedy about the eccentrics inhabiting a Parisian neighborhood, and "Un air de famille" ("Family Resemblances"), an intense, claustrophobic psychodrama about the propagation and feeding of neurosis within a family. He made other films after that, which I have not seen, and then came "L'Auberge espagnole" ("The Spanish Apartment") (2002) and now its sequel, "Russian Dolls," both of which, while wildly popular, I find quite dull, really boring in comparison with the two films he created a decade earlier.Nothing much happens. The old international gang who grew fond of each other as college students in Barcelona (as depicted in "L'Auberge") reunite in St. Petersburg for the marriage of one of their old chums, William (Kevin Bishop), to a Russian girl, Natacha (Evguenya Obraztsova). This event brings to a head the conflict about commitment that has plagued the narcissistic, immature Xavier (Romain Duris) in his on-again-off-again relationship with the statuesque Wendy (Kelly Reilly). At one point Xavier escapes from Wendy's clutches for a brief romp with the dazzling beauty Celia (Lucy Gordon). And so it goes. Will Xavier ever grow up? Will Wendy's short skirts eventually disappear altogether? (Yawn) I suppose these films are well received by younger adults everywhere, in part because they see reflected in the characters their own struggles to achieve and sustain intimacy, in part because the players come from so many places that younger viewers in almost any western nation can find one of their own on the screen here, and also because the ensemble is composed of good looking people. But the maturational issues are addressed ever so much better in Richard Linklater's "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset." Besides Duris, Reilly and Bishop, also reunited for the sequel are Audrey Tautou (as Martine), Cécile De France (Isabelle), Irene Montalà (Neus), Cristina Brondo (Soledad), Federico D'Anna (Alessandro), Barnaby Metschurat (Tobias) and Christian Pagh (Lars). (Zzzzz) My grades: 5.5/10 (C+) (Seen on 01/23/07)