Review of A Very Long Engagement (2004) by Kenneth L — 24 Jun 2010

One of those great movies that seems to have it all: a touching romance, powerful war scenes, whimsical humor, and a mystery to be solved. It all fits together very well. The story is about a girl searching for her fiancé, a soldier who went missing in the trenches of France during World War I.

It was made by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who also directed Delicatessen and Amelie. Whereas Delicatessen reminded me of a Terry Gilliam movie, this one had a lot more in common with a movie like Atonement. Both are very good-looking movies about loves interrupted by war.

Audrey Tautou, who also played the lead in Amelie, is excellent here: she reminds me of a French Audrey Hepburn. She's very pretty and very likable, and ypu really sympathize with her. Marion Cotillard has a couple of very good scenes in a smaller part as a vengeance-minded prostitute.

Jodie Foster speaks French well (as far as I could tell) in another small part. The story is very well constructed, in the way it keeps going back in flashback to the story of the soldier, and shows a little more of what happened each time.

The art direction and cinematography were both justifiably nominated for Oscars. The only complaint I have about the movie's look is that, as in Delicatessen, Jeunet seems to favor shades of orange quite a lot.

My only quibble with the story is that, in the trench scenes, there are quite a lot of supporting characters, to the point where they become hard to keep track of. The movie finds the right ending, and is neither ridiculously happy nor too terribly depressing.

I strongly recommend it, especially if you liked Atonement.