#Iamhere film review: Bae Doona in enjoyably absurd romantic comedy playing the object of a Frenchman’s desire

3/5 stars

Recalling Steven Spielberg’s The Terminal, in which Tom Hanks played an East European refugee marooned at New York’s JFK airport, Eric Lartigau’s #Iamhere sees a French chef become an unlikely internet sensation after he is stood up at Seoul’s Incheon airport.

Korean actress Bae Doona has a cameo as the protagonist’s elusive quarry of the in this well-meaning and intermittently successful romantic comedy.

Spielberg’s film was based on the true story of Iranian national Merhan Nasseri, who lived in immigration limbo at Charles de Gaulle airport for almost 18 years. Lartigau’s dilemma is far more innocuous, as Stéphane (Alain Chabat), a divorced restaurateur in the throes of a midlife crisis, jets off to Korea, hoping to meet Soo (Bae), a local painter with whom he has been flirting online. But when Soo fails to pick him up, Stéphane chooses to wait.

As he wanders the terminals of Incheon and encounters an assortment of travellers and staff, chronicling his exploits on Instagram, accompanied by the hashtag #jesuisla (“I am here”), his plight inadvertently goes viral. As hours become days, Stéphane becomes something of a local celebrity.

It’s a ridiculous premise buoyed solely by the notion that a middle-aged man who has successfully travelled from one side of the planet to the other would then resist checking into a hotel, but Chabat’s affable, self-effacing charm goes a long way to obscuring the inherent absurdity of Stéphane’s predicament.

He is at once a flailing fish out of water, yet exudes a disarming confidence that wins over the initially bemused workforce who keep the airport and its facilities running around the clock.

Bae is no stranger to international projects, having featured prominently in Japanese films Linda, Linda, Linda and Air Doll, as well as the Wachowskis’ Cloud Atlas and their Netflix show Sense8. Here she actually speaks pretty passable French, but is ultimately somewhat underused, even as her character is understandably taken aback by Stéphane’s impulsive arrival.

In its third act #Iamhere shifts gears, evoking Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation as Stéphane finally ventures into Seoul, and contrivance ensures that Soo and concerned members of Stéphane’s family all cross his path with remarkable ease.

Credit must go to Lartigau and Chabat, who ensure their film remains enjoyable and fuelled by an oh-so-French joie de vivre, when it could so easily have devolved into creepy wish fulfilment, as a desperate old man stubbornly refuses to address his responsibilities back home.

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