At least you'll never be a vegetable - even artichokes have hearts.

Amelie is a wonderfully sweet, quirky movie. Whimsy is a hard thing to do in movies and make it work. It's especially hard when done like it is in Amelie, where everything is fast paced, tangents are everywhere, and none of the main characters approximate normal people. It's like a short exursion into a fantasy world, and that theme is supported by the visual style, dialog, colors, and most importantly the scattered naration.

I had a lot of fun watching this movie, as most do (it is well loved.) But I actually found the subtitles to get in the way more then they typically do. Subtitles always detract a little from watching a movie, it's just not the same as hearing the actors deliver the lines in a language you understand. But the other problem is by definition you're watching the subtitles instead of the movie. This is problematic for movies with lots of dialog, and especially fast paced dialog. Amelie suffered from this a bit, not because of the dialog, but more because of the extensive natation. During all those great overview and montage shots the narrator is talking, usually very quickly, and it was tough for me to really take in the scenes and take in what the narrator was saying.

It wasn't too bad though, I just had to pay attention while watching. And I still greatly enjoyed myself. Nothing like warm and happy movies.

Still want more?
Read the Archives!