Mimi: A dusty Parisian romance that feels like a forgotten postcard

Is it worth your time?

If you like your movies feeling like a dusty theater production from a century ago, maybe. It’s got that specific, slightly creaky charm that you only find in mid-30s dramas. If you need pacing or anything that resembles modern tension, you’ll probably be bored to tears by the twenty-minute mark.

Mimi is one of those movies that reminds me of The Little Samaritan in how it tries to wring big emotions out of very small, very predictable sets. It feels like everyone is performing for the back row of a balcony, even when the camera is right in their faces.

The story is simple: struggling writer meets girl, writer gets inspired, life gets sad. We have seen this a thousand times. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. is doing a lot of heavy lifting here with his eyebrows alone. He spends most of the runtime looking perpetually worried, like he left the stove on back in 1850.

There is this one sequence where they are walking through the market, and you can tell the extras are just sort of wandering around aimlessly. One guy in the background looks like he’s trying to hide his wristwatch. It’s those little accidents that make me appreciate the mess of it all.

It doesn't have the grit of Such Is Life, that’s for sure. It feels much more polished and 'studio-fied,' for better or worse. Everything is just a little too clean for a story about people who are supposedly starving to death in a cold garret.

Some random notes:

• The lighting in the attic scene is bizarre. It goes from high-noon brightness to pitch black in about two seconds.
• Gertrude Lawrence has a voice that could carry over a train whistle.
• I think I spotted a prop from Tomorrow at Seven in the background of the café scene. Maybe? It’s hard to tell with these grainy prints.

The middle act sags so much it practically touches the floor. They spend way too long talking about 'inspiration' and 'art.' It’s the kind of dialogue that makes you want to check your phone, even if you’re trying to stay immersed. 🙄

But then, there’s a moment near the end where the silence just sits there. It isn't awkward, exactly. It feels like the movie finally stopped trying to be clever and just let the actors be humans for five seconds. I wish there had been more of that.

It’s not a masterpiece. It’s not even really a 'good' movie by any standard measure. But it’s a weirdly comforting relic. Like finding an old, stained letter in a library book. 🎞️