Paolo Moretti (Vincenzo Amato) is an Italian who drives a Paris tour bus but according to him, everything in Paris is second rate compared to Italy. He proposes marriage to German stewardess Greta Kluge (Nora Tschirner) after living for almost 3 years together. Incompetent french model Cécile Laurent (Louise Monot) rides her bicycle beside his bus, and he is completely taken with her. Taking his friend Derek Meech (Paddy Considine)'s bad advise and due to a misunderstanding at the hospital, he gets involved with the french model and her kids. He hits her with his bus and now he has to take care of her. Meanwhile a french pilot friend keeps hanging around Greta.

The multi-lingual dialog throws me off. The leads speak with accents anyways and I rather have it subtitled. I wanted to see this for Paddy Considine but he only has a small role. The leads have limited comedic timing and the language differences causes even more problems on that front. This rom-com is pretty pedestrian and flimsy. It has a weak light-weight charm but then he's chasing another woman around and it becomes unromantic. So the rom is pretty bad. They make up for it by backpedaling on the cheating idea but then the misunderstanding could be so easily explained if he just tells her the truth (minus the chasing her for her number). The comedy does have its moments of charm like him in the airplane toilet forcing her to talk to him. It's cute but not much more.

"Girl on a Bicycle" is a confusing film. While there is much to like in this romantic comedy, it also manages to do some very unromantic things which might make it tough to watch...especially for a date night.

Paolo and Greta live together in Paris and when the story begins, he asks her to marry him. The scene is quite cute and it's really easy to like the characters...especially Greta. Then, something odd happens which isn't romantic at all. While Paolo is out driving his tour bus, he sees a pretty lady on a bicycle and begins obsessing about her...even though Greta is a terrific woman and they're engaged. I don't know about you, but this seems out of place with a rom-com. I cannot imagine anything romantic about becoming engaged and then obsessing about another woman unless the fiancee is evil in some way...and this isn't the case. In fact, the other woman, to me, seems far less likable and a bit flighty.

When Paolo tells his friend about his obsession, the friend recommends he actually talk to the woman...then he'll realize she's not better than the fiancee. Odd advice, I know. However, instead of just asking her for her phone number, he stalks her with a bus full of people...nearly killing them as he speeds down the narrow Parisian streets. Then, after he catches up to her, he accidentally runs her over! Then, after she's released from the hospital, he takes her home and cares for her and her two kids. Funny? No. Cute. No.

Now comes another problematic part. The children think that Paulo is their long lost father and they call him Papa again and again...and he never corrects them and tells them the truth. This really doesn't make any sense...and took me out of the story....as did his chasing their mother. Plus, Paolo is either going to hurt these children very badly or his fiancee. None of this seemed romantic nor funny....just confusing. Plus, he treats sweet Great abominably...which is infuriating.

As a result, I was NOT thrilled with the plot at all and think it really hindered the movie. It's a shame as there area few nice performances and the film has a nice look and sound to it...but the story just isn't romantic...it's confusing. I can see why the film has many review that love it...and just as many that hate it.

By the way, this French-German co-production is unusual in that the dialog is in French, German, Italian and, mostly, English...which is odd since the film is set in Paris and neither of the main characters are native English speakers. When I saw it on DVD, naturally the first three languages were captioned...but the English wasn't and really should have been due to some heavy accents (particularly by Vincenzo Amato (Paolo).

Technically well made but terribly unromantic...which make it a very disappointing rom-com.

I found this movie to be a fun, cheesy rom-com, and I say this as a person who's not usually a fan of rom-coms. I had a lot of fun spending time with these characters, and the plot was different enough that I didn't feel like I was watching the same stupid paint-by-numbers movie that rom-coms generally are.

The children were precocious, but not saccharine; the Italian lead could have had a little more emotion in his facial expressions, but otherwise, was a fairly solid lead, and the German fiancée was immensely likable, and made her dilemma - when she found out the truth - to be genuine and relatable. The British best friend was some nice eye-candy, and very likable as well, and the French girl on the bicycle and the womanizing Francois were also a lot of fun. I wouldn't mind hanging out with this bunch of people.

Overall, this movie isn't particularly deep, and it won't change your life if you watch it, but it would be a very enjoyable way to while away a rainy afternoon.