How do say Occam’s Razor in French?
If you don’t know what that means in English, I’ll give you the simplest of definitions: It’s the simplest of solutions.
Occam’s Razor is a principle of parsimony and economy. It compels problem solvers to employ the easiest, most rational, reasonable solution.
The “problem” or premise of “Fly Me to the Moon” is this:
Isabelle, a beautiful, young, Parisian bride-to-be, played deftly by Diane Kruger (Inglorious Basterds), must somehow beat a family curse wherein first marriages end in disaster and the second is destined for eternal bliss.
Isabelle’s eleventh-hour solution to this “problem” is to marry a shill in Denmark and divorce him the same day, thus beating the curse and living happily ever after with her young, dentist fiancé, Pierre (Robert Plagnol).
When the shill is a no show, Isabelle latches onto a hapless travel writer, Jean-Yves played with great comic rhythm by Danny Boon (Welcome To The Sticks). Jean-Yves is en-route from Paris to Kenya via Copenhagen. That travel routing sums up the fictional world created by Director Pascal Chaumeil (Heartbreaker) in this film: screwball.
When Isabelle buys a first class ticket to Kenya at the last minute so she can convince Jean-Yves to marry her, it’s hard to ask yourself why she doesn’t stay in Denmark, find another, local schmuck and pay him the money to complete her “perfect plan.”
But then there’s no movie. And in my view the basic premise or “log line” of a movie is something you know in advance. So if you’re of a mind to say, “A curse on first marriages? How silly. Running off to Denmark to create a paper marriage. That’s a perfect plan? How ridiculous.” Then don’t go into the theater in first place.
If, on the other hand, you are willing to buy into a fictional world wherein a character will make a snap decision to woo a stranger on a plane, follow him to the ends of the Earth at great financial expense, all the while lying to her fiancé about her extended absence, then by all means go and see, “Fly Me To The Moon.”
You’ll be glad you did. Because it’s funny. The dialogue is witty. The characters are likeable. And the wacky plot makes for good screwball comedy. Does it rival, “Tootsie?” No. Not even close. It’s too predictable, and marred by a weak opening filled with talky exposition around a Christmas dinner table.
The conversation among family members at this holiday dinner sets up the story, but it fails as a framing tool because it is not visual. (The festival screening was marred further by a problem with subtitles that exacerbated and spotlighted the lack of visual story telling. The non-French speakers in the audience were clueless for the first five minutes, and spent the rest of the movie trying to figure out exactly what was said in the opening sequence).
Here’s the story in a nutshell: Isabelle flies of to Kenya with Jean-Yves who is amazed that this young hottie is throwing herself at him, but he doesn’t seem to wonder why. 
(Eventually he asks her, but by then it’s a bit late and seemed a filmmaking convenience.) Their adventures together, some of which are a bit cliché and some a tad over-the-top result in the germination of romantic feelings. When the unlikely couple wander through the African wilderness and fortuitously fall upon a Maasai tribal wedding, Isabelle repeats the nuptial ritual thus marrying her “mark.”
Back at the Paris airport, Isabelle hops in an elevator and dumps Jean-Yves, leaving no contact information. Her plan is an apparent success, which makes for good screenplay structure. But Jean-Yves, pulls the rug from under her by filing tribal proof of marriage, a goat-skin, with the local authorities, and that prevents Isabelle from purchasing her marriage license. She must now obtain a signed divorce decree, so Isabelle jets off to Moscow determined to prove to Jean-Yves that’s she’s a wife-from-hell.
Of course her plan continues to go awry, and that’s when you see Isabelle’s empathy and Jean-Yves’ vulnerability, and the humanity in both characters. I won’t spoil it by continuing the narrative, because you already know what happens.
And it doesn’t matter. If you buy into this world, if you’ve been laughing along the way, you will root for these two and connect with what makes them likeable and human. And if not, well then you’ve probably walked out already, and, frankly, you should not have bought a ticket in the first place.
Staying out of the theater is simplest solution to a problem with the log line of this film.
