IFC Films  Change of Plans  Change of Plans   Comments (0)
Change of Plans, Danièle Thompson’s skillfully executed comedy
of manners, is either deeply profound or insupportably
shallow—most likely the latter. The film features 11 carefully
delineated major characters, a complex flash-forward structure,
and touches on the essential questions of what makes romantic
and familial relationships work and fail, the lies and
sacrifices necessary to sustain these relationships, and the way
that fate intervenes to alter people’s not-so-carefully laid
plans. Yet, given the fact that the movie confines itself almost
exclusively to the cloistered world of the haute bourgeoisie (a
group whose narrow perspective Thompson pokes light but
affectionate fun at), has almost no interest or awareness of the
outside world and finally has little to say about the way human
relationships function, except that they’re utterly subject to
unexpected bouts of cosmic intervention, one gets the feeling
that all the director’s expertly rend