![]() Virtually every write-up on Takashi Miike's melodrama has gone out of its way to address certain issues of content. There are a number of slow spots, and the film doesn't close with much punch (it more or less just stops), but the resourcefulness and creativity on display here is certainly worth a look. McAbee deserves much credit for not letting the obvious financial limitations constrain his imagination the low-tech effects are quite effective in their retro feel, as is the use of still images. ![]() That in and of itself doesn't sound too odd, but imagine the story told with musical production numbers on a shoestring budget, and you'll start to get the idea of how bizarre-and hence compulsively watchable-this film is. McAbee, who also wrote and had a hand in the music, stars as the space traveler of the title, who takes a young man (Gregory Russell Cook) from the all-male planet of Mars to female-inhabited Venus as a vengeful professor (Rocco Sisto) out for blood follows close behind. Traditional film categorizations don't apply to Cory McAbee's truly one-of-a-kind, no-budget, black-and-white feature to use the strange combo term of "sci-fi musical western" still doesn't scratch the strange surface. Cynics can scoff all they want, but why, when it's simply easier to just surrender to the magic? This is because the fanciful flair places the audience squarely in the quirky mind of the heroine, but most of all it fits in with the film's idealistic vision of Paris as a sunny romantic wonderland. As in his famous directorial collaborations with Marc Caro, Amélie isn't lacking in visual razzle-dazzle and overall technical wizardry, but the flashy touches are used in a way that doesn't obscure the film's emotional core. The plot description could have come straight from any romantic comedy, and hence it doesn't begin to touch on the level of wit and imagination that Jeunet brings to the story. Yet when it comes to her own happiness, Amélie Poulain is less attentive, and when her apparent soulmate-a porn shop worker named Nino (Mathieu Kassovitz)-wanders into her life by chance, she does whatever she can to avoid formally meeting him. Irresistible ingénue Audrey Tautou stars in the title role, a winsome waitress in Paris who sets out to make life better (or, if you deserve it, worse) for those around her after returning a lost box of childhood artifacts to its rightful owner. These people speak as if being a shameless crowdpleaser is a bad thing, but if it gets the job done so beautifully-as this film does-what exactly is the problem? Jean-Pierre Jeunet's global sensation is such a relentless charmer that naturally a small but growing section of moviegoers have been vocally rebelling against it. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to and affiliated sites.Īmélie (Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain) (R) All movies are graded out of four stars ( )
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