COMING OF AGE, EUROPEAN STYLE, IN 'L'AUBERGE'.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic

'L'AUBERGE ESPAGNOLE'' is by no means a reality movie, but watching it, I couldn't help but think of MTV's ``The Real World,'' seeing as it's about a group of seven attractive young people living together in an exotic setting. There are two differences, distinctions that make the movie worth investigating: 1) The characters are actually interesting here, and 2) ``L'Auberge Espagnole,'' as you might guess from the title, is French, and the French have a solid history of making movies about post-adolescents who are looking for the meaning of life.

The hero in ``L'Auberge'' is Xavier (Romain Duris), a mixed-up Parisian who leaves his steady girlfriend (``Amelie's'' Audrey Tautou) to go to Barcelona for a year of graduate study. Xavier is a smart kid, but a little less savvy in the ways of the world than he thinks. His education begins in earnest when he lands at a cramped flat occupied by six other college students, each from a different European country. To loosely translate the title, it's a Euro pudding, a locale from which Xavier comes to realize ``you get out of it exactly what you put in.''

The two-hour movie frequently seems to be going in circles as filmmaker Cedric Klapisch (``When the Cat's Away'') muddles his way through Xavier's angst with his girlfriend and simultaneous attraction to a doctor's neglected wife (Judith Godreche). Sparks begin to fly, though, when Klapisch concentrates on the apartment's charismatic residents and later introduces an idiotic visitor (Kevin Bishop) whose loutish behavior humorously upsets the gang's harmonious existence.

Klapisch fills his movie full of cinematic tricks (he varies the movie's speed, uses split screens and dissolves) and life lessons, most of which seem to be offered with a grain of salt. He certainly seems to believe that Xavier is never going to have it so good again, living with total freedom amid stacks of pizza boxes, Heineken empties and a life full of friends and possibilities. Klapisch captures the magic of that unfettered time with a mixture of humor and wistfulness, making ``L'Auberge Espagnole'' a pleasure for anyone looking back or forward to the experience of leaving home for the first time.

L'AUBERGE ESPAGNOLE - Three stars

(R: language, sexual content)

Starring: Romain Duris, Judith Godreche, Audrey Tautou.

Director: Cedric Klapisch.

Running time: 1 hr. 56 min.

Playing: Laemmle's Monica in Santa Monica; Loews Beverly Center Cineplex in Los Angeles; Pacific's Arclight Theaters in Hollywood.

In a nutshell: A French ``Real World,'' but don't let that scare you away.

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Xavier (Romain Duris) leaves his French girlfriend (Audrey Tatou) for a new world in Barcelona in ``L'Auberge Espagnole.''