Amelie

Rating:
Summary: too sweet
Review: This is a romantic comedy (aka chick flick) with extra sugar added in. By the virtue of being foreign, it is more interesting and refreshing than the usual Julia Roberts movies.

Yet it is even cuter, and much more childish. It has some sickly sweet quality that is hard to describe. It is a long movie where tiny little cute things happen, and Amelie just blinks with her huge eyes. This is like a funnier version of the movie Magnolia - but still there is something not-so-subtly depressing about those childishly naive and one-sided characters.

I went to see a movie that I had hears was good, but neither me nor my date liked it. What astounded me is that later it grew more and more famous and hyped up, and all of my friends like it!

By the way, camera work, colors, imagery are very good. But not outstanding enough to make the entire movie worth watching.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Film
Review: Although MAYBE a little too mature for me, I loved Amélie. There were 2-4 nude scenes, but besides that, I loved it.

Somehow I find it more difficult to comment on movies I liked. Perhaps this is because praise is harder to put into words than complaints, and merit is often less tangible.

"Amelie" is a movie I would highly recommend. I know, I know: it's already been labeled an international hit, but this is one of those rare occasions when a movie deserves the praise it has been showered with.

It's fresh, original, beautifully shot, and features a memorable score that helps create its very special atmosphere. It leaves you with a wonderful feeling, like "an orange-coloured day", when nature is in bloom and harmony, inviting you to the celebration of life. It endows your memory with a picture album of those colourful, dynamic, artistic, often poetic sequences of which it is composed.

"Amelie" is not a simple fairytale, as some might think. There's a bit of everything in it: romance, mystery, philosophy, brilliant humour and whimsy. It touches upon many issues, but never "in your face". Obviously, it wasn't meant to mirror reality, so don't try to find flaws here. And I wouldn't encourage viewers to question some of Amelie's actions from the moral standpoint. Doing so would be taking the film too seriously, instead of just enjoying its mischievous twinkle.

The plot is well-woven and a pleasure to follow. I've seen the movie several times, and it hasn't yet lost any of its charm. It isn't perfect, at times overly sentimental, but I would generously give it 9/10, for all of the above and for making my day. :)

Rating:
Summary: happy and entertaining
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this movie! It may not be an intellectual feast for the mind, or a gritty documentary about the pain and suffering of real life, but it DOES remind us of the simpler side of life and what it is to see the world as a child might see it. This is entertainment, so I must protest, it is entitled be whatever sugar-coated confection it wants to be! And it is not really so sugar-coated. Nino works in a porn shop (though it is surprisingly un-seedy), and other characters have their problems (though they seem surprisingly easy to solve by our irrepressible heroine). Amelie is a sweet, Ally McBeal-esque girl who has never really grown up. She is still the little girl who lives in a world of her own imagination. And if those glasses are rose-coloured, who are we to say that the way she sees the world is worse than the more pessimistic brand of cynicism that seems to be so rampant in "realism" today? Amelie reminds us that perhaps, after all, the children, with their innocent idealism and little games, have somehow got it right.

Both Amelie and her accidental "amoureux" are adorable, though I thought perhaps Jeunet might have taken a cue from Jane Austen and pointed out that Amelie's interference with other people's lives, like Emma, sometimes turned out badly (like Georgette and her psychotic lover), and Amelie should have taken some responsibility for that. But perhaps that is my North American liberalism speaking. I loved the integration of the fantasy with reality: talking pig-lamps, the photographs that speak to Nino about the "beautiful" mysterious girl....are they merely manifestations of Nino and Amelie's subconscious thought, or is destiny really working miracles to bring them together? And it is the pointing out of the details of life that holds the movie together in terms of story. After all, most people's stories are manifested through the details...this is the stuff life (or at least an ideal one) is made of...c'est la vie. And everybody, not just Amelie and Nino, has their quirks. I thought the narrated introduction at the beginning of the film quite funny in its portrayal of the silly and the absurd that really, though exaggerated, makes up much of our lives. And the characters! Oh the characters! There's not a sane one in the lot (it has been said that the French have their own distinct brand of madness..j/k)! Nevertheless, we see echos of people we know in each of them, in the jealous boyfriend, the angry grocer, the kind painter, etc. And perhaps there is an Amelie in some of us too, shy introverts who think up strategems to avoid confronting our true passions.

Last but not least, the cinematography is excellent. It may not be realistic (I lived in Paris for a few years and it isn't), but it's a pretty fantasy of an Ideal Paris.

All in all, it's a satisfying fantasy with a happy ending. And in these days, don't we all need some more happy endings?

Rating:
Summary: A fun film that wears its heart on its sleeve
Review: Think a "happy" "City of Lost Children" and you have this film. The film is still way off kilter but in a very fun way. A light and sweet film with an imaginative look.

Rating:
Summary: Rich imagery and colour but it never forgets the story
Review: You can almost smell Paris in this beautiful, rich and fun film. Amelie is a lonely girl who grows into a quiet adult - whose life is small and neat - but whose past has been somewhat fraught and misunderstood. A chance event sends her life spinning off into a parallel existence - one in which she realises she can quietly do good for other people without seeking reward - and it also helps her find love.
Now that is the barebones of the story - but it in no way actually manages to capture how wonderful this film is. It is sweet, shoulder-shruggingly gallic film - where everything is open to gentle ridicule from the argumentative old house-wives to the nature of Ameilie's mothers' death. (killed by a woman falling from a Cathedral). As Amelie tries to organise true love she realises that this is the one thing you cannot organise - for if you help it along it will not necessarily turn out - and you cannot avoid it if it is meant to be.

I didn't think I would like this film at all. I thought it would be meaningful and poignant and have long lingering silences and then try to carry it off by having a gamine heroine for the lead. Well it has the Hepburn-esque heroine, but the movie is just a joy from start to finish. LIght, refreshing and one I will happily watch again.

Rating:
Summary: Tres bien mes amis!
Review: I find it difficult to believe that not one person has written a review for this movie. So I shall try to do my very best. This movie simply oozes charm. I bought it on a lark, and not a few positive words from others. And well, because Audrey Tautou looks cute on the cover. I'd seen a few bits of it here and there, and decided why not. I am glad that I did too, because it's marvelous.

This is a quirky movie, and in that way that we Americans will never be able to reproduce. All we do is remake them, and they're typically saccharine sweet at best. We seem to excel at war movies, and depressing stories that crush the spirit of the viewer. And those are good too, but there's only so much one can take before they need a movie like this to soothe their soul. And here we have the French to thank for something other than blowing up a greenpeace ship. Not that I don't whole-heartedly appreciate that.

The story is about a girl who spent her childhood starved of affection from her neurotic, but well meaning parents. Mom dies in a bizarre suicide attempt by a Quebec exchange student involving Notre Dame, gravity, and a little bit of screaming. It has almost no bearing on the plot other than to dispose of the mother, and thus add a dimension of grief to the father, who builds her a shrine of odds and ends; to include a (seemingly) nomadic garden gnome. She works at a café with more "interesting" people, who have their own little stories, but they are little indeed. She's unlucky in love, thus far, and in life she's so shy that her world consists of working, visiting her bereaved father, and isolating herself in her apartment, where she spies on a curious neighbor who has painted the same Renoir every year for the last twenty years. He also suffers from a genetic condition that predisposes him to suffering broken bones with great ease. Similar to Samuel L's character in that horrible movie Unbreakable, but here it's actually believable. Everything changes when she hears on the TV that Princess Di has been killed, thus she drops the lid from the bottle in her hand, thus it rolls off and knocks loose a wall tile in her bathroom (how's that for contrived?). Hidden behind is a dust covered rusty tin with some small child's treasures concealed within. She decides to reunite the tin with it's now quite grown up owner, and if she is successful, she will spend the rest of her life trying to reunite other miserable people with some form happiness. It sounds sweet, but only through some small cleverness on the part of the writer can it possibly succeed. Thankfully, it does, begging me to wonder if this movie could possibly ever been made in the States...

All of this takes place, and more, with the backdrop of a Paris that does not really exist. The colours are bright, the streets clean, the people amiable. But the photography is outstanding, and helps the movie along in that effortless way we all like to see. Amelie is not all sweet though, as she sees fit to avenge the small crimes of one of the movies myriad of characters. It's all quite harmless, as is the movie, which makes it such a delight to watch. Like eating tiramisu, in a hot bath (I guess). This is definitely a good movie for guys to rent if their lady is coming over, and should yield some form of passion (though I take no responsibility for that comment). Excellent movie for anyone not afraid to read subtitles.

Rating:
Summary: The movie that changed cinema....
Review: Well I think that people that only like watching stupid hollywood movies eating popcorn and drinking coke won't like that one, but for all others, this movie was a total success, and not for no reason! This movie makes you want to smile once you've seen it, you're suddenly happy and you just feel good.. I have no idea why but so it is! It shows you how small things in life can be enough, how people can change your life.. This movie is really great and I recommend it to you...
However, I have no idea how the english movie is, I have it in french....
Have a nice movie!

Rating:
Summary: Best french movie ever
Review: What more to say. The french dont usually make good movies.

Rating:
Summary: Daughter and I Loved this movie
Review: My daughter and I watched this initally as a pay per view.
Wonderful French based movie with terrific characters
and mystery! If you wanted to know where the Gnome
in Paris VW commercial idea came from it was this movie.
Very romantic and funny. We will be buying this DVD.
Too bad there are not more movies like this one out there!

Rating:
Summary: another bizarre Jeunet gem
Review: Amelie is another bizarre cruise of a story, and it will suck you in and not let you go until the very last moment. Like Jeunet's great early effort "Delicatessen", this movie is filled with some pretty weird characters, and the story evolves from a mosaic of moments that are little story gems in themselves. The main character of the movie, Amelie, is a waitress in a typical Paris bistro, but her solitary life is far from ordinary, as is her upbringing. Bent on the mission of helping people (in her own twisted way), she sets out on several adventures. The discovery of a small metal box hidden behind one of her bathroom tiles by a child some forty years ago sends her on a chase to find this person and reunite him with the lost treasure. At the same time she chases her own luck and love by engaging the guy of her fancy in a chase across Paris. All of the above does a limited if not poor job in describing what goes on in this bizarre, yet fun and highly entertaining movie that will involve you completely if you allow it to. The cinematography is wonderful alone. Let Amelie into your life and imagination, you won't regret it.