Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

cagdas-4 Well,I like the acting of Romain Duris and since L'Auberge Espagnole was a nice movie I was quite eager to watch Les Poupeés Russes.In general, I like the movie.There are not many movies that elaborate in such a way about European life and people in Europe.However like in L'Auberge Espagnole, I have some difficulties of understanding the logic of the director.Well talking about so deep things like love, how can they be so superficial about some facts about life?Well, the thing is, Romain Duris in the movie sleeps with many girls. And when she goes to kookai and meets the French girl from Senegal he says that it's the first time he approaches a girl in such a way.You think that he's a naive guy and if that's the first time he does such a thing, what is the logic behind him sleeping with many girls..This I really do not get!The director creates a somewhat inconsistent character.Secondly,when Wendy's brother is marrying, there are only Wendy's friends whom he met in Barcelona for the wedding.Well, that's one thing I hate about movies!Doesn't this guy have any other friends?And in the first movie most of the people didn't like him at all but eventually just so that they'll be together in St.Petersburg, the director brings them together there.This is really superficial.I think that the directors should think about those kinds of details.Those were 2 things that caught my attention and L'Auberge Espagnole also had those kinds of flaws.However overall, I must say that I like the movie

nycritic Continuing where L'AUBERGE ESPAGNOLE left off, Russian DOLLS fast-forwards five years into the future and presents us a Xavier we thought we wouldn't be seeing: the professional who has a sordid job writing bad soap opera, far from the successful novelist he had originally planned to be, his life mired in confusion and hovering immaturity. At age thirty he has had unsuccessful relationships with women -- several of them who make their re-appearances from the previous film, among them Audrey Tautou (Martine) and Irene Montalá (Neus) -- and who fate seems to be directing him towards Wendy (Kelly Reilly) who is also involved in a self-destructive affair with a controlling nobody. Along the way, he reconnects with Isabelle in a cheeky sequence that could be a male's fantasy (as it involves lots of lesbians and Durin himself dons a dress and wig), but this leads him to a botched affair with Kassia (Aïssa Maïga) and the pursuit of superficial beauty under the persona of a supermodel (Lucy Gordon). Along the way we also see Wendy's brother William (Kevin Bishop) find love and marital happiness with the Russian ballerina Natascha (Evguyenya Obraztsova), and a reunion that finds all of the original cast members together. However, this is mainly Romain Durin, Kelly Reilly, and in a lesser way, Cecile de France's movie -- a fragmented soap opera that displays the continuing adventures of these young people as they move through life and try to find relative happiness in the adult world.

gradyharp Russian DOLLS ('Les Poupées russes') is the full of love folllowup by Cédric Klapisch to his highly successful 2002 film 'L'Auberge Espagnole', the film that tossed multinational young people together in a Barcelona apartment and watched them interact and create some sense out of the havoc that was their lives. Klapisch has fine comic timing, a sense of spontaneity, and a cast lifted from his previous film - all ingredients for a fine little spin on current relationships. If the film is too much in love with itself, (the self-indulgent multiple split screen viewing and back and forth pacing tends to be a bit cutesy), in the end there is so much fun and wry wisdom to spread around that many of the holes in the script can be forgiven.The story focuses on events five years after the Barcelona doings in 'L'Auberge Espagnole' and yet as the main character Xavier Rousseau (Romain Duris) narrates the current tale he finds the need for flashbacks to explain current circumstances. William (Kevin Bishop), the bigot from before who labeled roommate Tobias (Barnaby Metschurat) as a Nazi, has smoothed out a bit and in fact has found love in a Russian girl Natacha (Evguenya Obraztsova), a Russian ballet dancer who lives in St. Petersburg and the current story is supposed to be about their wedding in St. Petersburg which will also be a reunion for all the roommates from Barcelona. Xavier is a writer who is forced to be a ghostwriter for celebrities who want to publish memoirs because he has difficulty writing a silly television love series and is stuck in his writing of his own novel. He cannot keep relationships (but then very few in this group of friends can) and he teeters between his allegiance to his ex Martine (Audrey Tautou), while moving in on one of the celebrity interviewees Celia (Lucy Gordon). He is warned by his lesbian roommate Isabelle (Cécile De France) about his wanton ways but Xavier uses Isabelle as cover for his 98-year-old grandfather (Pierre Gérald), who insists he marry. Xavier toys with a beautiful black girl Kassia (Aïssa Maïga) and is rejected, and just about the time when Xavier feels as though he will never find the right girl ('You just keep opening them like Russian nested dolls hoping that the one in the center will be your choice'), his script is picked up by BBC and he flies to London to work with Wendy (Kelly Reilly - William's attractive sister, unsuccessful in finding a decent mate) and voila! The rest of the intrigue is best left to the viewer: it does become complicated and multilingual and hilarious...and touching.Weaving all the cast members form his first film into the resolution of the second film proves to have some problems in continuity, but then this is not great writing nor was it meant to be. This is French comedy in fine form and is a thoroughly entertaining film and the chance to watch some beautiful people display how crazy relationships today have become. Grady Harp

bwp126 In the same way that L'Auberge Espagnole dealt with the difficulties of career, school, and growing up in general, Russian Dolls deals with love and growing older. I think the great thing about both of these movies is that so many people can look at these characters- especially Xavier- and say, "Yes! I'm not the only one going through this stuff then!" During both movies there were certain phrases and quotes that made me stop and say, "Wow! That is dead on!" Like in L'Auberge when Xavier talks about how life seems less complicated for everybody else, more organized. Or the final line in Russian Dolls about the search for that special someone. Great movies, entertaining, but most of all they speak to those of us who are still trying to figure it all out!