For reasons to which I am not privy and which may be no more than pure chance the bulk of Daniele Thompson's screenplays feature ensemble casts and she is a Past Master at the multiple-character, multi-layered storyline. It was not surprising therefore than when she turned to directing she did so with her own screenplay La Buche which centered on three sisters and their disparate lives but also offered strong roles to four semi-leads with a handful of cameos (Isabelle Carre's neurotic wife, for example) for good measure. Thompson returned to the multi-character format in her third (and so far last)writer-director stint, the brilliant Fauteuils d'Orchestre but in between, as if to prove her versatility, she came up with this, essentially two-hander which exploits brilliantly the talents of Juliette Binoche and Jean Reno. Not that she ignores the bigger picture, she does, after all, set her story in an airport and an adjacent hotel allowing a mere five minutes or so of non-airport/hotel screen time at the very end.<br /><br />In a clear nod to the Hollywood epitomized by Billy Wilder she employs a meet-cute to bring the characters together and from then on it's downhill all the way with Thompson's sparkling dialogue slaloming its way to a brilliant finale. Both leads are a revelation and more than up to the task of working outside their 'image' (Binoche is not noted for comedy, Reno for romantic leads) and the obvious chemistry between them is confirmed by the outtakes that come with the DVD. There's a nice line in scenery chewing from Sergio Lopez in a well-placed cameo as the abusive lover from whom Binoche is fleeing and the sure-footedness of the other speaking roles is merely the bow on the ribbon with which Thompson ties her wonderful bauble. Sheer delight.