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This minor drama by Olivier Assayas has its lovely moments, but it might be too modest for its own good. Divided into six chapters, Late August, Early September captures a year in the lives of several Parisians, most of them in their thirties. Virtually plotless, the movie plunges the audience into the dailiness of its characters' lives. Assayas' frenetic style -- predicated on an endlessly moving handheld camera, natural lighting, and hectic frames -- seeks to imbue the familiar material with invigorating freshness. For all of Assayas' impressive facility, the movie never transcends its hackneyed scenario. Seeking to unearth the profundities immanent in the mundane, Assayas' movie ends up evaporating from memory days after the fact -- like much of the drudgery of everyday life. Ultimately, the movie comes to seem irritatingly mannered. Bereft of the subtle heft of his recent features (the remarkable Irma Vep and Cold Water), Late August, Early September begins to resemble a parody of French arty trendiness. A bit dull and somewhat superfluous, this meandering movie finds the celebrated French auteur treading water.