When last we saw Xavier, he was fresh from a year studying abroad in Barcelona and running full-speed from a cushy job with the realization that he didn’t want to spend his life as a corporate drone killing time until retirement. Instead, he wanted to be a writer who said profound things and positively affected the world around him. Five years later, his novel is unpublished, he’s ghostwriting memoirs for celebrities who “can’t put two words together” and harboring an unrequited love for his ex, Martine (Audrey Tautou). Not exactly the sort of success he envisioned, but as far as aspiring writers go, he’s somewhat ahead of the curve.

The first chapter in Xavier’s story, L’Auberge espagnole (2003), was essentially Friends as a European film. Needing a place to stay in Barcelona, he moves into an apartment occupied by six people from six different countries. They all become fast friends despite their differences, but when the year is over, they all lose touch. Xavier’s first novel recounted this story to us, and his next novel, Les Poupées russes, written largely in the bathroom of a train, covers the events leading up to William’s (Kevin Bishop) marriage to Natacha (Evguenya Obraztsova), a Russian dancer.

Several members of the Barcelona crew make only token appearances in Les Poupées russes, as the story largely revolves around Xavier and Wendy (Kelly Reilly), who have teamed up to write an English language sequel to a sappy French TV movie. In the process, they fall for each other, but not before Xavier, in his fractured method of storytelling, tells us of romances with sales clerks, supermodels, and everything in between.

Actually, it’s that fractured storytelling that elevates Les Poupées russes above the plethora of French films about young love. Xavier has a habit of writing the same scene several times, trying it out the way every writer does, and director Cédric Klapisch seems to delight in showing us as many of the drafts as he can. So, when John Edward, the French TV protagonist, runs into the always difficult situation of his lovers discovering each other, we see John Edward’s explanation. Then we see different ones. He has a twin brother. He has amnesia. The women change. He changes. Mostly it’s played for comic effect, but later the technique proves some dramatic worth as Xavier attempts to reconcile with Wendy.