Lost and Found in Paris

Dolan’s clever latest (after The Sweeney Sisters) follows a newly single art courier as she ends up on a scavenger hunt after losing the work in her care. After Joan Blakely’s social-climbing husband, Casey, reveals he’s fathered twins with his former assistant, Joan accepts an assignment to deliver a series of sketches by a 19th-century French painter depicting Joan of Arc from a Pasadena, Calif., museum to a collector in Paris. The obscure works are meaningful to Joan, whose namesake was revered and often referenced by her late father, Henry, a famous artist who died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Joan meets smart, thoughtful Nate on the flight to Paris, and later, in an attempt to forget about Casey, she hooks up with him. The morning after, she discovers the sketches are missing from her hotel room safe. Joan grills Nate about the theft and determines he wasn’t the culprit. Then, envelopes appear that contain elaborate clues along with a page from Henry’s priceless notebooks, long thought to be lost in the plane that crashed into the North Tower. Dolan successfully sells most, but not all, of the far-fetched reasons for the mystery of the envelopes, and does a fantastic job depicting Joan’s love for her father and heartache over his death. This has a bit more substance than the standard Parisian romp. (Apr.)