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Cédric Klapisch's uncalled for but not unwelcome sequel to 2002's L'Auberge espagnole finds Xavier (The Beat My Heart Skipped's Romain Duris) cranking out TV love stories while doing his utmost to avoid finding true love himself. Klapisch brings back much of the earlier movie's cast - Audrey Tautou as Duris' needy ex, Cécile de France as a lesbian financial analyst, Kevin Bishop as a shaggy Brit stagehand who finds his soulmate in a Russian ballerina, Kelly Reilly as a young Londoner with bad taste in bedmates - but this is Duris' movie, chronicling the last days of a veteran skirt-chaser who finds himself edging into adulthood whether he likes it or not. The movie mimics Xavier's confusion, shadowing his sexual exploits and crises of conscience, enjoyably mucking about for most of the movie's first hour. In a sense, it's not much more than a Gallic slant on Wedding Crashers, complete with superfluous female nudity, but the movie's scattershot structure keeps it from being too predictable. Imagine a romantic comedy where you don't know from the start who the hero's supposed to end up with. —Sam Adams

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