‘Cafe au Lait’ By Hal Hinson Washington Post Staff Writer September 30, 1994

Director: Mathieu Kassovitz Cast: Mathieu Kassovitz; Hubert Kounde; Julie Mauduech Not rated Compare prices for this movie Find local video stores More movie shopping Save money with NextCard Visa

In its opening sequence, two men in their twenties -- one pedaling furiously on his bicycle, the other in a cab -- speed through the streets of Paris on what looks like a collision course. Felix, played by the director himself, is a gangly messenger from a lower-middle-class family of Jewish eccentrics. Jamal (Hubert Kounde), on the other hand, is the elegantly handsome son of well-to-do African diplomats.

After simultaneously arriving at the same apartment building, this oddly matched pair squeeze through the front entrance, into the elevator and, with an increasing sense of puzzlement, down the hall to the door of the same apartment. Its occupant is a caramel-colored West Indian knockout named Lola (Julie Mauduech), who has arranged this rendezvous to spring a bit of news upon these unsuspecting young fools. As it turns out, Lola has been seeing both men, but the surprises don't end there. She is also pregnant and intends to have the baby, though she doesn't know which of the two is the father.

The problem is that Lola loves both men and can't bring herself to choose between them. After this little stunt, though, there's a possibility that she'll lose them both. Though stunned at first, Felix and Jamal react about as one would expect. Hurling insults at one another, they square off like bull rams butting heads over ownership rights.

After this, most of the rest of the film is spent with each party in this oddball menage a trois deliberating over what to do. But while Kassovitz keeps the screen hopping with his noisy, hypertensive style, after the basic situation is laid out, there's really nowhere for the film to go. Though the actors give lively, appealing performances -- particularly Mauduech -- the characters don't develop much beyond what we see at first glance.

Ultimately, the film seems to be trapped in its facile ebony-and-ivory premise. "Cafe au Lait" borrows liberally from Spike Lee's "She's Gotta Have It," and shows the obvious influence of Scorsese and the French New Wave, but in the end the movie degenerates into a low-budget rehash of "Three Men and a Baby."

Cafe au Lait, at the Key, is unrated.

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