Sequel as demonstration of Peter Principle...

Rating: 3/10 (7 February 2007)

Given that this movie was a sequel, the casting was a foregone conclusion. Unfortunately so, in my opinion.
Since so much of the sequel was obviously improvised, it required actors with a lot of juice. Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy did not deliver it. Although Delpy fell far more short of the mark than did Hawke.
Ethan Hawke is an interesting screen presence. His body language, the way different expressions dart across his face. The range of what he can convey. To me, Julie Delpy is much less compelling.
Additionally, this film was very chatty. The scripted part seemed to be going for a Dinner with Andre type of feel. Some of the scripted chatter was thoughtful and engaging. A lot of it, though, was self-consciously delivered and pseudo profound or perhaps more accurately -- profoundly pseudo.
I think Ethan Hawke would have done much better in the improvised scenes if he had had someone other than Delpy off which to bounce. Though, perhaps she was at an unfair disadvantage because English is not her first language.
Even though it is merely far-fetched and fanciful speculation since again, logically, the casting here of Hawke and Delpy had to be a foregone conclusion, the improvised nature of this movie would have worked much better with another duo. Say, Hugh Laurie and Drew Barrymore, for example. Now that would have been some movie. Laurie would have come up with some great dialogue and Barrymore would have played off of it.
Another winning combination of actors here would have been Owen Wilson and Francis O'Connor. That would have been chemistry galore. And Wilson is known for his improvisational contributions to dialogue.
Another fact that hung over this movie was the contrast between its plot and the plot of Ethan Hawke's "real" life. The romantic melodrama Hawke lived through and which received so much coverage in the press far, far exceeded the romantic complications in this movie. And somehow made the movie seem banal in comparison.