Review of Flight of the Red Balloon (2007) by Spencer G — 24 Jan 2009

Good story and it's heart was in the right place... but give me a freakin' break! The trailer understand the subject matter better than the actual film. Every shot went on for at least 3 seconds too long.

Every scene lasted for at least a minute too long. We kept being shown what was "interesting" and "existential," rather than simply telling the story of a mother too preoccupied with herself, instead of raising her child, which had to be left to the housekeeper.

I felt as if we were being hit over the head over and over again with the same message and the same image of the red balloon floating over and around the city. To make things even worse, whatever subtlety this movie assumed it had was thrown out of the window in the last scene, when it explains everything that just happened and what we, the audience, should have learned from this two-hour experience.

People who have never seen a French film in their life may actually be entralled; peoples familiar with French cinema... stay as far away as possible!!!