Usually when movies use Paris as a romantic backdrop, it's a young couple who gets to occupy the foreground. Not so with "Le Week-End," a tale of two aging tourists - he a professor of philosophy, she a teacher - who've chosen to "celebrate" their 30th anniversary in (where else? ) the City of Lights.

Like many couples who have been together for a long time, Nick and Meg Burroughs often seem to have more things that are driving them apart than bringing them together. Not only have they grown tired of each other's all-too-predictable habits and quirks, but Meg, in particular, feels that now, with the kids grown and gone, it may be time for the two of them to move on and to spend what little time they have left getting to know themselves as individuals rather than as a couple.

Because the screenplay by Hanif Kureishi is clearly focused on an older couple, the film captures the paradox that exists at the core of lasting romantic love: that the very same predictable patterns and dull routines that, over time, work to deaden love are also what enhance intimacy and bind us inexorably to one another over the long haul.

Though Meg and Nick are still clearly sexual beings, even that fact has caused some tension and division between them, namely in an affair Nick had awhile back and for which he is perpetually atoning. Yet, the script is smart enough to know that what is said in the heat of the moment is not always indicative of what is in the heart.

Much of the second half of the film takes place at a posh and pretentious dinner party thrown by an old college buddy of Nick's, an American author and intellectual played by Jeff Goldblum.

Director Roger Michell keeps the tone serious and intimate without becoming heavy-handed or preachy. He allows the characters to reveal their depth through conversation and the way they interact with the world and each other. He is aided immeasurably by the skilled and incisive performances of Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan, who make us truly believe that they are a couple who have grown both comfortable and complacent with one another over time. Above all, "Le Week-End" acknowledges that relationships are tricky and complex things and come with no pat or easy instructions to make them easier to navigate our way through.

After "Le Week-End," it may not be necessary for Richard Linklater to make another "Before…" movie, after all. I think Kureishi and Michell might have done it already.

I was interested in "Le Week-End" for a couple of reasons. I have enjoyed Jim Broadbent in many things. Also, I am nearing the age and have a lot in common with the characters--though after seeing the film, I am glad the similarity only goes so far. Unlike the couple in this one who have been married 30 years and now realize how little they actually like each other, after 28 years, I am still thrilled I married my wife and recently returned from a trip to Paris with her. Our trip went a lot better...thank goodness.

The film begins with Nick (Jim Broadbent) and Meg (Lindsay Duncan) arriving in Paris. They're there to celebrate their 30th anniversary and so they've returned to this city for the first time since their honeymoon. While hopes are high, their trip doesn't go as planned and the hotel they stayed in the first time is now a dump. And, with so many plans going awry, they slowly begin to examine their lives and how they, too, are not exactly the way they hoped they'd be. What follows is a movie that shows the couples working through some ennui and coming up with a better understanding with each other.

Overall, I liked the acting in the film very much. Broadbent and Duncan seemed quite good in these roles. Unfortunately, as far as the material goes, it was purely adequate--not bad but not especially memorable either. It left me wondering is this all there is...just like the couples did earlier in the film.

This movie is like an unofficial 5th entry to the "Before..."-series (which I truly adore) by Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke. However, I really hope that the real one, if we get it around 2030 will be better quality-wise. "Le Week-End" could not convince me. We have a couple, who on their 30th wedding anniversary, travel to Paris. I rarely ever had the feeling that they were truly in love with each other. Okay, you could bring up as an argument that after 30 years things aren't that emotional anymore and just return to normal, but sometimes their actions looked downright as if they really only wanted to hurt each other. Comparing this to another performance from 2013, June Squibb in Nebraska (a truly great film by the way),she was certainly rough, but you could always feel that she still loved her man. And that is totally missing here. They seem as if, in real life, they would have been divorced long ago.

Jeff Goldblum, who I am usually a great fan of, could not really convince me here either. He has the biggest supporting role. People who know him know that he almost always walks the fine line between great authenticity and almost too extreme behavior. Sadly, here he occasionally crosses it. Nonetheless he is fun to watch as always and is responsible for some of the highlights of the film. Still it was difficult to decide if he was actually a likable character. The one person that definitely was not likable here is Lindsey Duncan's character, who not only lacks subtlety, but behaves really horribly in some situations, such as when her husband falls and she tells him to be a man or when she tells her husband of 30 years that she is gonna go out with a younger man that night.

The husband is a bit of a likable victim from start to finish. We find out about his career or nonexistence thereof, his marriage struggles, his health concerns and it all culminates in a great monologue at the full table near the end with people all around him. The whole party is a bit dull though and could have been made much more interesting with all the characters who were the guests there just working as forgettable background actors. Most of the dialogs were written in a convincing way, but there were several scenes which had no real purpose at all, occasionally didn't even fit the characters such as the randomly included pot smoking scene. The final silent walk down the stairs was probably intended to be powerful by the makers, but it left no impression on me at all. It rather felt contradictory to all the hullabaloo that happened minutes before.

This film tries to be loud and hip on so many occasions, instead of going for quiet subtlety, which really could have made this work. The frequent sex references (talking about it, moaning...) were mostly more embarrassing than funny and felt also included randomly without any real purpose, just in order to get some cheap laughs.

Director Roger Michell and writer Hanif Kureishi reunited here seven years after making Venus (starring the recently deceased Peter O'Toole),but judging from the outcome and the quality of "Le Week-End" all the sparkle in their collaborations seems gone. Not recommended.