Lost in Paris

For those who seek it out - and its release seems to be very limited - it should provide a welcome antidote to the more strident forms of humour that pass for screen comedy today.

... the story of a Canadian naif (Gordon) who is stranded in Paris and falls for a local Chaplinesque tramp (Abel) is told with such broad strokes (lots of double-takes and achingly obvious pratfalls) that it eventually becomes wearisome.

Unfortunately, for all the photogenic Parisian trappings, the riverside tango and Eiffel Tower slapstick, the laborious jollity of the latest film from Fiona Gordon and Dominique Abel never takes flight.

It’s a surreal jaunt that juggles the cheekily uncouth with the innocently sweet inside its ever-present sense of whimsy.