Barnes & Noble

Four years after his Alien: Resurrection met with a cool reaction from U.S. audiences, director Jean-Pierre Jeunet's return to French-language filmmaking is an eye-popping potpourri of magic realism. Pouty ingénue Audrey Tautou (Happenstance) is the titular heroine, a daydreaming anti-socialite who takes it upon herself to anonymously help others find happiness, whether through simple matchmaking in a café or having a garden gnome travel vicariously for her aging father (Rufus). The trouble is that no matter how hard she tries, Amélie can't seem to make herself happy, let alone open up to her secret crush, Nino (Mathieu Kassovitz), a hobbyist who reconstructs discarded photo-booth pictures. A modern fairy tale bordering on a live-action cartoon, Jeunet's Oscar-nominated feel-good film is a visual banquet of gags, swooshes, and comic-book design. He eschews the dirty, monochromatic alleys of New Wave Paris for a candy-colored vision of prewar wonder, populated with lonesome eccentrics and forever awash in accordion music. Screenwriter Guillaume Laurant, who also contributed to the fancifully dark City of Lost Children, collaborates with Jeunet on a story that is at once emotionally gratifying and hilariously surreal; inanimate objects come to life, and a reclusive artist repaints the same Renoir every year. Despite all the magical set designs and storytelling, though, the movie is tout Tautou. With saucerlike eyes that could make Betty Boop jealous, her Amélie infuses every scene with both painful shyness and romantic keening. At one point, the movie proclaims the world a harsh place for dreamers. But it also proves a bouncy treat with the potential to change all that. Tony Nigro

All Movie Guide

One woman decides to change the world by changing the lives of the people she knows in this charming and romantic comic fantasy from director Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Amelie (Audrey Tautou) is a young woman who had a decidedly unusual childhood; misdiagnosed with an unusual heart condition, Amelie didn't attend school with other children, but spent most of her time in her room, where she developed a keen imagination and an active fantasy life. Her mother Amandine (Lorella Cravotta) died in a freak accident when Amelie was eight, and her father Raphael (Rufus) had limited contact with her, since his presence seemed to throw her heart into high gear. Despite all this, Amelie has grown into a healthy and beautiful young woman who works in a cafe and has a whimsical, romantic nature. When Princess Diana dies in a car wreck in the summer of 1997, Amelie is reminded that life can be fleeting and she decides it's time for her to intervene in the lives of those around her, hoping to bring a bit of happiness to her neighbors and the regulars at the cafe. Amelie starts by bringing together two lonely people -- Georgette (Isabelle Nanty), a tobacconist with a severe case of hypochondria, and Joseph (Dominique Pinon), an especially ill-tempered customer. When Amelie finds a box of old toys in her apartment, she returns them to their former owner, Mr. Bretodeau (Maurice Benichou), sending him on a reverie of childhood. Amelie befriends Dufayel (Serge Merlin), an elderly artist living nearby whose bones are so brittle, thanks to a rare disease, that everything in his flat must be padded for his protection. And Amelie decides someone has to step into the life of Nino (Mathieu Kassovitz), a lonely adult video store clerk and part-time carnival spook-show ghost who collects pictures left behind at photo booths around Paris. Le Fabuleux Destin D'Amelie Poulain received unusually enthusiastic advance reviews prior to its French premiere in the spring of 2001, and was well received at a special free screening at that year's Cannes Film Festival. Mark Deming

New York Times

Amélie has a hypnotic sense of romance; it's a fable filled with longing, with a heroine who constantly flirts with failure. Just because the movie has the reflexes of a predatory animal doesn't mean it lacks a heart. Elvis Mitchell

Washington Post

There's so much here, and all of it delightful. Desson Howe

Chicago Sun-Times

1/2
A delicious pastry of a movie. Roger Ebert

Boston Globe

Delightful and original, the film conjures up a corner of Paris distinct and specific, yet fairy-tale fanciful. Jay Carr

Product Details

• UPC: 9339065002331
• Source: ICON
• Language: Français
• Sales Rank: 4,806