At first, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris seemed like a pleasant enough flick with a promising premise and a stellar cast. And I did enjoy the film in moments. But ultimately I found its plot to be dry and I was mostly bored by the film.

In Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, Lesley Manville plays Ada Harris, a widowed cleaning lady in the London area. While cleaning houses for wealthy people she comes across a Dior dress that she becomes obsessed with and she travels to Paris to pursue her own Dior dress. Marquis de Chassagne, played by Lambert Wilson, is one of the men associated with the Dior line and Mrs. Harris tries to build a rapport with him. Claudine Colbert, played by Isabelle Huppert, is on the staff that oversees the high-end dress department and she tries to thwart Mrs. Harris. But Mrs. Harris just wants a wonderful dress in her life—a dress that she cannot afford—to make her feel happy since she is not finding love with a man.

Lesley Manville and Lambert Wilson workwell together in Mrs. Harris goes to Paris, but throw in Isabelle Huppert and the film’s chemistry is blindsided. The over-the-top focus on the Dior dress in the film is also personification taken too far. Personification works in some films or stories, but in Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris it degrades into silly fantasy.

I did find some joy in the film, mostly in the pleasant scenery and some interesting bits of characterization. But overall, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris is a film that simply let me down. It is dry and devoid of excitement, and it comes off as rather ridiculous and boring. A snoozer, really. I feel this may be a film that goes straight to streaming. Just two stars for Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris.

The film is titled Both Sides of the Blade, it is also formerly titled Fire. Fire is its English title. In my point-of-view, I see it as Both Sides of the Blade. With all the gut-wrenching and dramatic material, Both Sides of the Blade is like a boxing match that is does not have victory or defeat. The match just continues. The unsettling subject matter reminded me of all those dark productions I have experienced at Steppenwolf Theatre in downtown Chicago. The ones that gear on relationships falling apart or characters in harsh terms with themselves or reality. In both sides of the blade, the boxing match of the problems is one where the tensions and anger are hidden. From that, the film juggles many underlying issues that are faithful to dealing with reality.

With Juliette Binoche as one of the lead characters, she always can act as a woman that is brave, open-minded, and display a charming personality. The director is Claire Denis, and Binoche has worked on several films with her. What I have realized is that with all the films that Binoche has worked on with Denis is that Binoche can display many personalities. She can play a happily divorced mother seeking adventure in Let the Sunshine In (2017), a lady with a twisted space operation in High Life (2018), and someone that is not afraid to have a relationship with her husband and ex-boyfriend in Both Sides of the Blade. Binoche has many lovely trademarks which makes her to be an energetic, brilliant, and one of the most wonderful French actresses in today’s world. Despite some of her films not displaying much light, she always has wonderful personalities to offer them, and she does so also with Both Sides of the Blade.

In Both Sides of the Blade Binoche plays Sara. She is married to her husband Jean, and he is played by Vincent Lindon. The film starts out with them to be a happily married couple living in France with a few insecurities. Sara works in radio. Jean use to be a rugby player, but his downfall is he has a criminal record. His main priority is his son Marcus. Marcus is played by Issa Perica. Jean though is rather oblivious to his son and more focused on his wife Sara. The lovebird life for Sara and Jean begin to take a downfall as Sara’s ex-boyfriend Francois shows up in her life. Francois is played by Gregoire Colin. Sara begins to feel she wants to be in Francois’s company. As she begins to make time for Francois more frequently, Jean’s attitude spirals into confusion and anger. With Francois back in Sara’s life her mindset changes on if she is happy or not. As for Jean, his mindset changes to that pattern as well. Both Sides of the Blade will have personalities clash in many perplexing arguments with Sara, Jean, and Francois also.

I will say though, even though the likeliness of infidelity is the big nailbiter of drama for the film, that the film is redundant in many moments. This comes more in terms of Jean and his son Marcus. That subject is revisited several times, and Marcus does have problems. but nothing gets resolved for Marcus or for Jean. Despite the redundancy, I believe still it helped play into the big conflict between Jean and Sara. That is because Jean going trying to help his son shows he wants to have his mind in other places instead of what his wife may be up to. That does not mean that Jean is laid-back about Francois though.

Any time there is a new Marvel hero having their own film and then linking to other Marvel characters, superhero fans assume they have reason to be excited. I love superhero movies, and I’ve always been a big Marvel fan. But I have a love/hate relationship at best with the newest Marvel offering, Thor: Love and Thunder.

The best part of Thor: Love and Thunder is the humor of Chris Hemsworth, who plays Thor. There is also some fun to be had in the silly scenarios with jamming music, quirky action situations, and some unexpected humor. Unfortunately, though, this one relies too much on humor, with very little of the interspersed seriousness we’ve come to expect from the Marvel cinematic universe. It also goes off on way too many tangents.

The backstory in Thor: Love and Thunder is quirky and not very in-depth. The plot is that Thor returns from a long retirement because Gorr the God Butcher, played by Christian Bale, is on the hunt to destroy all of the gods. To stop him, Thor teams up with Valkyrie, played by Tessa Thompson, Korg, played by Taika Waititi, and his ex-girlfriend Jane Foster, aka Mighty Thor, played by Natalie Portman. The film also includes much of the team from Guardians of the Galaxy (2014).

The quirkiness that is a hallmark of Marvel characters is present in Thor: Love and Thunder, and there are a few classic moments. But the film comes off as ridiculous at times, and the writing is just silly throughout the film. The narration is lacking and it goes on these obscure tangents that just don’t make sense.

Probably my biggest issue with the film, though, is Russell Crowe as Zeus. Crowe looks awful. He is obnoxious, out of shape, and just seems out of sorts. His role and performance only adds to the errors of the film.

Trying to be positive here, but it’s not coming easy. Thor: Love and Thunder is by far the least spectacular of the four Thor films. It will likely sell well at the box office, as most Marvel films do. But it lacks originality and a consistent story line, and it’s just not much fun. Just two stars for Thor: Love and Thunder.