Paris, Je T'aime . . . but I can't commit

Movie critics, beware: I am flexing my opinion.

Paris, Je T'aime is 18 shorts, directed by 18 different people, featuring 18 different casts and writers. Each is set in a different arrondisement of Paris, and the idea (I think) is to celebrate the city.

Some succeed nicely--like the vampire romance on the bank of the Seine, starring Elijah Wood.

Remember the Highlander TV show, when Duncan McLeod (Adrian -sigh- Paul) lived on a barge on the Seine, which just had to be the coolest digs, ever? Believe it or not, this gothic, funny bit with its long stairs and blue-black night conjured up the same wanna-be-there aura.

Mostly though, the movie evoked the overwhelming, alienating isolation of a huge city. Sometimes it was poignant, sometimes funny, sometimes gallicly obscure, but in the end, I did not love Paris as much as my poor romantic self used to. It's a harsh, big world.