A Very Long Engagement
A Very Long Engagement reunites the charming Audrey Tautou with her Amélie director Jean-Pierre Jeunet; the result is a film very similar in style, yet very different in substance. Tautou's Mathilde is a colder fish than Amélie for sure, but that's what war (and polio) does to people. But her insistence that her fiancée is still alive, despite all evidence to the contrary, drives the film's underlying moral that nothing—even the most horrible of wars—can destroy love and hope. World War I was indeed the most horrible of wars, something every film about it, including this one, has failed to completely capture (why is it always raining in WWI movies?). But perhaps the strongest attribute of A Very Long Engagement is how the film manages to hold true to its romantic ideal without succumbing to sentimentality. Also, look for Jodie Foster showing off her fluent French in a small role.