Léo (Melvil Poupaud), a former journalist turned untenured college professor, is not exactly what you’d call a success story, although he’s far from being a failure. Thoughtful, fairly seductive, still handsome despite some visible hair loss, the 49-year-old single dad seems to have led a relatively good life, so why does he seem so down on himself?
Those who seek out French director Nicolas Pariser’s latest feature shouldn’t expect a definitive answer to that inquiry, or any answers at all, really. One Minute to Midnight (Un peu avant minuit) is very much a film about a guy asking lots of questions — both of himself and of the coterie of old friends and lovers he runs into during a brief stay in Paris — wondering aloud who he once was and who, for better or worse, he’s become.
One Minute to Midnight
The Bottom Line
He'll always have Paris.
