James Resse (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is a mild-mannered personal aide in the office of the US Ambassador in Paris, but his dreams soar far beyond fetching lattes and tracking itineraries. He wants to be a secret agent -- planting bugs, kicking ass, and saving the world. Things take a predictable turn when he is assigned to tag along with FBI Agent Charlie Wax (Travolta). You've seen this story before -- Wax is the renegade lawman who solves most problems with an explosion, whereas his wet-behind-the-ears partner prefers a chess game to a car chase -- but Travolta's energy and the breakneck pace of the film's first half makes the tired premise fun, if not fresh.
Then, in between the gunfire and explosions, something changes. The film starts to take itself seriously. Trading Wax's brute force and crass witticisms for Reese's half-hearted guilt after his first kill, From Paris with Love lets the laughs and body count dip to explain and execute its contrived plot. The twist quickly turns sour, as we end up questioning character motivations and asking, 'What's going on?' The film is at its best when guns are blazing, Resse is complaining, and Wax is sliding down a fireman's pole, inverted, while taking out baddies. But the second half splits up Reese and Wax to uncover a terrorist plot. Stereotypes and clichés go flying as opportunities to recapture the film's lighthearted energy are missed.
Meyers's acting is clearly on auto-pilot as he delivers his lines like a Speak and Spell, and writer Adi Hasak's screenplay, based on a Luc Besson story of betrayed love and terrorism, is just plain bad. Director Pierre Morel was also responsible for last year's surprise Liam Neeson revenge thriller Taken, and much like that earlier film, most of From Paris with Love rests on the shoulders of one man. While the girthy Travolta carries the film with enthusiasm -- even when he's huffing and puffing during an on-foot pursuit -- he's never given the room to run the show. It's hard not to feel like some kind of opportunity has been missed here. Morel can stage an action scene, but we sense that he's failed to see the film's strengths and capitalize on them.
