Review of Amélie (2001) by Matt P — 02 Oct 2011

Amelie Poulain's (Audrey Tatou) morals and standards are put to the test as she falls in love with an old classmate. Living her whole life as a fantasy, seeing only what she wants to see, at heart Amelie can can be happy. What we see of her childhood is quick and quirky. A fast moving family living in a confined apartment with little love and lots of rules to go around. Jean--Pierre Jeunet's cartoon like style and fairy tale narration make "Amelie" a fun film to watch and an interesting character to sympathize with.

At heart, "Amelie" is a love story, told from the POV of a lonely eccentric girl who never built enough courage to socialize properly. Her extreme exclusion comes from having been raised with a crazy house mother (who somehow gets smashed by a suicide jumper) and a busy father. Where Amelie had little to no friends, she would invent ones in her mind and spend time alone skipping rocks or some other quirky activity (standing on the top of a building contemplating how many couples are having an orgasm). What is truly remarkable though is how Amelie manages to stay so positive. Had it not been for Tatou's almost uncanny resemblance to the elegant Audrey Hepburn the character might not have seemed so iconic. Alas, Tatou is her own actress and her unique ability to remain cheerful and pretty onscreen make the movie flow better. I will admit there were a few parts of the film where the narrator seemed to go a bit overboard with narrating (anytime a new character is introduced he tells us their likes and dislikes), but these strange characters all seem to be out of this world, whereas Amelie is the only normal one there. After discovering a long lost box in her apartment bathroom she yearns to its rightful owner. From then on, her main goal in life is to help others. Work as sort of a guardian angel and a mysterious angel embodying miracles. Through a twist of fate of trying to help others, she ultimately helps herself when she falls for the timid ex-classmate of hers, played by Mathieu Kassovitz.

The interaction and life the actors put into each of their characters looks natural and flawless--had it not also been for the great direction. "Amelie" is a film that stands out among most modern made foreign films. How Amelie's change of character can mean the completion of an artist's puzzle can also show how the smallest things we do in life can justify how we affect others, and how others may have affect on us.