A young woman gets accepted into a Parisian art school — but, because it’s so expensive to live in the City of Light, she decides to throw her hat into the ring as a contestant on a “The Bachelor”-style dating show called “The Honeypot.” It’s not about her potentially winning; she just wants to do the show for the check that will cover her living expenses in Paris.
But there’s a surprise in store for Dawn (Miranda Cosgrove), the main character in the newly released Netflix comedy “The Wrong Paris” that’s rocketing up the Netflix Top 10 movies chart: The dating reality series, she finds out too late, actually unfolds in a completely different Paris — the Paris that’s found in Texas, and which exists less than an hour away from her hometown. Oops!
“I’m a huge rom-com lover, and one of the reasons I enjoy this genre so much is because of the aspect of escapism,” Cosgrove said in a Netflix promotional interview about “The Wrong Paris,” currently the #1 movie on the streaming giant in the U.S. “I hope people have fun seeing all the crazy and ridiculous physical comedy, as well as the more heartfelt moments.”
The Wrong Paris climbs to #1 on Netflix
Written by Nicole Henrich and directed by Janeen Damian, the movie turns out to be one of those “the wrong bus can still take you to the right station” sort of stories. Remember, Dawn is trying to get cut from the dating show as fast as possible — she’s got a beautiful French city of art and romance to conquer. So it’s a good thing the bait-and-switch version of “The Honeypot” doesn’t have a cowboy hunk for Dawn to fall for (ha, just kidding!).
“When (the contestants) meet their cowboy prince charming, Trey, they’re so busy swooning over his abs they hardly care where they are,” Netflix explains. “Dawn, on the other hand, is still focused on her mission: Get eliminated and pocket the cash for art school. But as Dawn gets to know Trey, their undeniable chemistry threatens to divert her Parisian plans once more.”
Paris, Texas (for the unaware) is a small town with a population of around 25,000 and a 65-foot-tall replica of the Eiffel Tower with a cowboy hat at the very top. The perfect place, in other words, to provide a picturesque setting for a low-stakes, feel-good Netflix original film that doesn’t take itself seriously.
“This was a fun watch!” one user raved on Reddit. “I think [Miranda Cosgrove] thrives in a campy comedy so she was perfect for this role too. Loved how clearly [The Bachelor] inspired everything was.”
