Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
Xavier is a 40-year-old father of two who still finds life very complicated. When the mother of his children moves to New York, he can't bear them growing up far away from him and so he decides to move there as well.
Chinese Puzzle is a charming but somewhat meandering conclusion to Cédric Klapisch's Auberge Espagnole trilogy. The plot threads — sham marriage, gay fatherhood, immigration bureaucracy — are juggled with warmth but feel scattered and overly convenient. Romain Duris carries the film with his usual charismatic ease, and the ensemble is likable, though no performance truly stands out. Paris and New York are captured pleasantly but without particular visual ambition. The trilogy's multicultural, cosmopolitan voice remains distinctive enough to avoid feeling generic, though this third installment is the least fresh of the three. The ending wraps things up a bit too neatly and sentimentally, lacking the bittersweet resonance of L'Auberge Espagnole's conclusion.