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| Movie Forums :: Reviews :: Amelie: She'll Change Your Wife |
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Posted on 3/29/02
Amelie: She'll Change Your Wife
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Note: this (albeit late) review is being posted in mild protest of Amélie's Oscar-snubbing. Enjoy.
Most moviegoers will tell you that French film is an acquired taste. Whether this is true or not may be dependent on the film connoisseur in question, but I can honestly say that I have just seen a French film that, in my own humble opinion, effortlessly transcends the limits of its genre.
Amélie, a film by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (The City of Lost Children, Alien Resurrection) is a charming film that centers around the ordinarily extraordinary life of a young woman, Amélie Poulain (Audrey Tautou). The film begins, innocuously enough, with a simple and disarming account of Amélie's childhood. By the time we are introduced to the mature young women who works as a waitress at a quaint Parisian café, we feel that we are already intimately connected with this remarkable individual; and thus we are introduced immediately to one of the major trends set by director Jean-Pierre Jeunet: characters are to be complex, well-drawn, and decidedly multidimensional.
Briefly, the story of Amélie follows its namesake on a quirky and emotional journey through human relationships. Amélie Poulain is a young woman willing to change people's lives-in fact, she seems willing to change anyone's life but her own: even when she knows she perhaps should and, in fact, is given every opportunity to do so. This age-old separation between Knowing and Doing is handled with a gentle and forgiving tenderness that enables an emotionally open viewer to feel the tug of longing and the bite of self-restriction with the same raw-edged desperation that the marvelously expressive Tautou displays. It is a strange mixture of isolation and involvement that manages to be hopelessly endearing and frustrating at the same time. Through it all, we are kept mechanically informed by a monotone, deadpan narrator who offers up comment after comment that is both factually true and outrageously funny, in context.
This is a film that literally glories in a particular brand of ironic humor that may or may not be particularly Parisian in origin but is, nonetheless, crucial to the film's overall workability. It is precisely this playful, childlike humor that works for the suspension of your belief by bringing color and vivacity into what would otherwise be just another unrealistic, over-dramatic fairytale. Because Amélie is a fairy tale -- unapologetically so -- but one that is imbued with such meaningful characterization and charming wit that it seems quite real, so long as you are immersed in it.
As rosy a picture as all this august verbiage paints, there are a few parts of the film I take issue with- although they are all products of the film's cultural heritage. The first issue I have with this film is its' exclusive focus on love as eros - that is, romantic love of a decidedly sensual nature. It's probably not giving anything away to say that, of all the couples who "make a connection" in the film, few do it after a very long, drawn-out, communication-intensive intimacy-cultivating process. There is also, in at least one instance, the insinuation of certain insatiability of the male appetite -- an insinuation that is not only biologically insupportable, but also happens to come at a point in the film that I considered quite jarring.
Yes, the concepts of "love at first sight" and "true love" are quite alive and well in this film- and while the emphasis on them may not be the most accurate representation of the experiences of us everyday, non-fairytale folk, it is important to realize that they are a necessary component of a French film, and that not only would the film not be as decidedly French without them, it would be less enjoyable.
Although the age of its lead actors may seem to indicate otherwise, Amélie is really an inclusive film that speaks to issues of love and commitment for individuals of both genders, of all ages. On a slightly deeper level, it also manages to offer up a rather curious statement about the nature, practice, and limits of benevolence.
It is an engaging, charming, and oftentimes riotous film in which there is perhaps more value in the journey than the predictable ending, and I recommend it without question to anyone who ever has or ever plans to engage in serious romantic relationship with a member of the opposite gender.
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