A Very Long Engagement

Saying I had high expectations of this film is putting it mildly. After reading the book and falling in love with it, I would never have gone to see the film adaptation if it wasn't getting great reviews. Along comes the adaptation, with that bizarre, free-spirited director Jean-Pierre Jeunet at the helm, and starring his favorite actor (and all of France's favorite, as it seems) Audrey Tatou. Ever since 1991's Delicatessen, I knew I would wait and watch for Jeunet's films with as much anticipation as Hayao Miyazaki's. There's something child-like about his creations, as if he remembers a childhood full of love and hope and joy, not without traumas, but none that are insurmountable. He read Sébastien Japrisot's novel and teased out those aspects that work best with his style of filmmaking -- old videos used to illustrate a point, quick cuts that never let the admittedly complex story lag, gorgeous cinematography mimicking both the horror of war (in all its awful browns) and the golden luster of post-war France, humor where there was little in the book to create a more balanced tone... The story revolves around a French boy in WWI, executed for mutilating his hand in a bid to get sent home, and his fiance who refuses to believe he's dead. I'm tempted to give it my highest marks except that folks who haven't read the book may find themselves lost at times during the film. The book is full of characters, and the film mirrors that, yet doesn't have the time to delve deeply into each one. It doesn't help that the book/film takes a meandering course towards resolution. To be fair, I'm not sure what Jeunet could have done to make this better. All it means is that you should either watch the film many times, read the book before you go see the film, or read it afterwards to fully get its flavor. (Oh, and yes, Jodie Foster is in the movie, and yes, she does speak French fluently.)

original title: Un Long Dimanche de Fiançailles
year: 2004
length: 134 min.
rating: 3.5
IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0344510/combined