Posted on 4/08/05 at 06:19 AM



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Happily Ever After
At Paris (1:40). Not rated: Nudity, sex, language. In French with subtitles.

To call writer-director Yvan Attal the French Woody Allen does neither of them any good, but at least it suggests that "Happily Ever After" gives moviegoers a funny, observant, evanescent approach to the mysteries of human desire.

Attal also stars in this story of three male friends and the women who bedevil them. One is a faithful husband who slips, one is grudgingly faithful to his shrewish wife, the third is an unapologetic playboy.

There are several lyrical, wordless scenes that deserve the Hall of Fame. In one, an older couple (VIPs Claude Berri and Anouk Aimee) dine out in comfortable silence, their rich history unfolding without dialogue. And in one of two exquisite scenes with an unbilled Johnny Depp, Charlotte Gainsbourg's character shares an intimate space with a stranger who hears the same music through adjacent headphones. This is terrific filmmaking.

Jami Bernard