A lot of talk about the weather in the region of France where this story takes place, lead us to believe the film will a continuous deluge, but alas, most of the rain happens at the end of this tale about the making of a documentary that was not meant to be.

Karim, a front desk clerk from a local hotel, and an aspiring film maker, decides to make a documentary about Agathe Villanova, a politician, to get her angle on a lot of subjects where her experience will prove well worth telling. For this project he enlists Michel Ronsard, who has directed his own documentaries. Their two man team could not be more different. Agathe's views on racism and sexism are what Karim is trying to capture as the essence for the film.

Agathe, who has come to spend some time with her sister Florence in this part of the Provance, where the family lived. Agathe has come to help her sister sort out things after the death of their mother. What Agathe is not counting is her sister's resentment because she has gone to become somewhat notorious and a minor celebrity. Florence herself is involved with Michel in a secret liaison no one suspects. The family reunion turns out to be an occasion for rehashing the past.

This has been one of the three films by its director, and star, Agnes Jaoui, we have found less involving. Basically, it is a rambling film that goes nowhere, nor does it solve any of the tensions between the two sisters, or even gets the documentary done because of the constant interruptions experienced in the shooting. Ms. Jaoui, who also acts in all her films, is an enigma in this one. What she has accomplish is making a better movie than it should have been in the way uses music to paraphrase each sequence, by her use of the excellent music selections that perhaps gives the viewer hope that what will follow will be better. There is a recurring motif sung by the King Singers of Schubert's "Der Goldenfahrer" that haunts the viewer's mind long after the film is over. Ms. Jaoui also selected music from Vivaldi, Nina Simone, and even a Cuban carnival ensemble that adds another layer to the picture.

Jean-Pierre Bacri, the director's collaborator and former husband, makes a good case for Michel Rosand, a documentary maker that shows he has no clue in how to bring the project to the screen, or even has any affinity with the son he is supposed to be entertaining, but who begs to go away with a friend. Jamel Debbouze is seen as Karim. Pascalle Arbillot is Florence and Mimouna Hadji seems to be a natural in her take of the loyal servant.

"Parlez-moi de la pluie" is a mildly amusing comedy.

Initially this third film from triple-threat Writer-Director-Actress Agnes Jaoui (and the seventh she has co-written with Jean-Pierre Bacri) seems reluctant to surrender its riches but two and a half to three reels in we're ready to roll over and play dead once again as the old team of Jaoui and Bacri deliver yet another feast for the eyes and the ears. Their great strength as actor-writers has always been observation and recording of the minutiae of the Human Condition as it applies to what appear to be randomly linked lives and once more they draw us subtly into another microcosm of unhappy lives verging on the dysfunctional and circling like moths the light of Jaoui's feminist writer turned wannabe politician whilst working through unfinished business with her sister and agreeing to a filmed interview with two inept filmmakers one of whom (Bacri) is having a clandestine affair with that same unhappily married sister. As is sometimes the way with Jaoui-Bacri movies not that much happens except that they train a microscope on real people - there's even a short sequence in which Jaoui and Bacri study an ant carrying a twig which could be seen as an oblique comment on what they are about. Overall another satisfying movie which I shall be adding to my DVD collection as soon as it becomes available.

This was a flat movie. It is, briefly, the story of two sisters, one an author/feminist who is considering going into politics, the other "just a sister," who seems just to sit at home with her boyfriend, who is sort of flat too. A has-been movie director convinces the would-be politician to sit for a series of interviews, which go poorly. In between we see a little of the director's life with his son - he is divorced and his ex has custody, so he doesn't see his son often. We see a little of the romantic/private life of the feminist, whose boyfriend feels like he has become unnecessary in her life and leaves her. We see that the two sisters evidently have some unresolved issues concerning their mother, who passed away the year before. The housekeeper also evidently has some issues with her ex, but they aren't explored either. Nothing really is, and yet this movie goes on for a long time, or so it seems.

There is no real character development for any of the characters. The dialog is not interesting. The few shots of Provence are nothing special. The movie, in short, is nothing special.

Flat.