Review of Amélie (2001) by Wes B — 23 Jul 2015

A review by Mr. Anarchy.

Movie Review #2.

Amelie is one of my favorite movies actually. Just throwing that out there right now. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie the first time I watched it and I really liked it even on the second time. (I try to not watch my favorite movies too many times otherwise they'll stop being fun to watch.) The thing I like most about this movie is the attention and depth that they gave to each and every character in this movie and every actor/actress embodies their characters perfectly and they made their characters come to life in fantastic ways. And sometimes those characters manage to steal the show. But the main character Amelie wasn't ignored.

This is actually one of the first foreign films that I've ever seen. When I watch a foreign movie that someone suggests almost always I think that the movie is going to be a super dramatic and extremely sad story, but this was not the case in Amelie. Amelie doesn't really have much story to it. But what it does have is about Amelie who grew up with a childhood that was rather sad and yet she's not really bitter about it and thankfully the people who made this movie knew that this movie wouldn't work with someone who was a bitter main character. There were no fights, no heavy-handed ways of dealing with mean people, in fact I liked that this movie was so innocent in a lot of ways (despite the nudity) even in the scenes when Amelie was dealing with certain people she found distasteful or rude. In some ways this movie doesn't want us to be angry it wants us to just laugh and be lighthearted and not to go out and seek revenge, but to mess with the enemy in a way that isn't harmful but is just to play pranks and to just laugh that they fell for it.

The music of this movie is beautiful and I describe it as a joyful sorrow every time I hear it. Those are my favorite kinds of songs. They didn't use many special effects yet when they did the special effects were used sparingly and at just the right moments and even those hold up to this day. Everything about the movie is as creative as it is charming. Amelie came out about 13 years ago and it still holds up very well to this day. It's extremely charming and it's hard to find movies like this and I wish they would make more.