Now a Paris-based freelance writer, Xavier still doesn't have a place of his own or a woman with whom to share his life, but there are a wealth of imperfect contenders for the latter. The trouble is that he wants perfection -- he just doesn't know what it looks like.
Ex-girlfriend Martine (Audrey Tautou , getting more screen time than in ``L'Auberge") is a single mom now and given to snuggling with Xavier when she's not dumping her son with him for weekends away. Ex-roommate Isabelle (sleek Cecile de France ) is great fun to be with but is only interested in other women; getting her into a dress to pass as Xavier's fiancee during a visit to his aging grandpere (Pierre Cohen Victor ) prompts a suitably funny revenge. And there's a possibility for something with a lovely Senegalese shop clerk (Aissa Maiga ), but the hero manages to torpedo that one with panache. Don't even ask about the spoiled supermodel (Lucy Gordon ) whose memoirs he's ghostwriting.
``How can I write about love?" Xavier moans about a subject of which he knows nothing. Hired to pen the sequel to a goopy romantic TV movie called ``Love Passion in Venice," he plays out the scenes in his head, casting friends and random acquaintances in the roles of the lovers. No one fits until he takes on a creative partner: his old roommate from England, Wendy (Kelly Reilly ). Life lesson: Don't write love scenes unless you're prepared to commit to them.
Klapisch steers ``Russian Dolls" with effervescent visual cheekiness, and he gets in a number of digs at the whole silly business of making a sequel. ``Eh, it's too corny," says Xavier about some dialogue he and Wendy have worked out. ``Yeah, but sometimes it's nice to see something like that in a movie," she replies. True enough, especially when prepared by intelligent chefs.
