WHEN THE CAT'S AWAY Movie Review

Chacun Cherche Son Chat

Fed up with both her job as a modeling agency assistant and her lack of a satisfying love life, the young, vulnerable Chloé (Garance Clavel in a terrifically smart performance) returns to her tiny Parisian apartment from a brief but much-needed vacation only to discover that the one reassuring certainty in her life—her cat Gris-Gris—has disappeared. Chloé had left Gris-Gris in the care of the eccentric Mademoiselle Renée (Renée Le Calm), whose apartment is crammed with cats of every stripe and who seems genuinely heartbroken to inform poor Chloé that Gris-Gris has flown the coop. Renée contacts every one of the aging cat cronies in her grapevine to help locate Gris-Gris (when she puts the word out it's like the dog network's hunt for the kidnapped puppies in 101 Dalmatians). Chloé's search through the alleys, bars, and back streets of Paris for her missing feline—a search that culminates in at least two happy surprises—turns into an enchantingly funny yet unexpectedly moving journey of the heart. Chloé's Paris is a city changing rapidly; her hope is to find that its romantic spirit is still alive—along with her cat—despite the demolished old buildings and the quickly erected new ones. Cédric Klapisch's charming and refreshingly civilized comedy is a slice of working-class life that may at first seem thin and familiar, but deepens and disarms us as it ambles along, finally depositing us—and Chloé—in a joyous new place that we never saw coming. Klapisch is a director to watch; his economical little storytelling touches—such as Chloé's vacation being represented by a single, brief image of her head sticking out of the water at a beach—are witty and fun, and enrich the meaning of scenes. When the Cat's Away is a sneaky, sweet surprise.

NEXT STOP … Boyfriends & Girlfriends, The Daytrippers, Un Air de Famille

1996 (R) 91m/C FR Garance Clavel, Zinedine Soualem, Olivier Py, Renee Le Calm; D: Cedric Klapisch; W: Cedric Klapisch; C: Benoit Delhomme. VHS COL