Rating: 5.0/5.0
A great foreign film from France, filled with adventure and romance; Suspense and bliss. My personal 2nd favourite foreign film in general, once I thought about it for a while. Out of all of the places in the world that film is released for it to be considered Foreign, England and France are my favourites.
Amélie focuses on the life of a girl in Paris, France, working at Montmartre café, who decides to help those around her along with her personal life, and finds a love interest along the way. Meeting new people and helping them express themselves in creative ways, Amélie lives out a life with a lot of emotion and mystery throughout.
This movie has to be pretty great for my rating being 5.0/5.0. It being my 2nd favourite foreign film next to Pan’s Labyrinth. Amélie Poulain is a quirky and fun character who likes to create mysteries of her own, I really like that about the character. Most of the characters in the movie were big roles, so there weren’t too many characters and traits that it was overwhelming or confusing. You learn a lot of each character throughout the movie, and the backstory of Amélie. I like how they introduce the characters in the beginning, instead of revealing that later in the story for you to find out. This shows how straightforward and easy to follow this film is.
Amélie herself is a peculiar yet simple character and I love the way the writers portray her personality. They go into the a very fine history of her without being too broad in the beginning to know what her life is like and what she is like. The rest of the movie is essentially about how she enjoys helping the lives of others. This is a really great movie that shows selflessness and care to others, so it’s also showing a message through a film full of mystery, affection, and exhilaration.
I love the fact that this is not your typical love story; Girl finds a boy, falls in love, deal with a problem, problem is resolved and they live happily ever after, the end. This is not Amélie. Amélie discovers how she wants to assist people in their lives, and then takes a boy (Nino)’s possession that he lost, and makes it a mystery to help him find it. I won’t tell how it ends because I do not like including spoilers in my reviews, but I just loved the originality in it. I love how it is mostly about Amélie and her life, but including a bit of romance with Nino as well. Not so much about the two of them together. Not from two perspectives, mainly focused on one.
But Amélie Poulain is not all rainbows, puppies, and sunshine. If she sees someone being utterly disrespectful to another that she knows is not doing wrong, she’ll sneakily get revenge on that person. Not too terrible of a happening, but enough to teach them a lesson. Amélie has her personal problems, too, just like everyone else, and loves to help people out, whether that means doing it the easy way or the hard way. But she’s definitely not 100% happy all the time, so don’t hold me to describing her as emotionless. She’s just like any other character, but more of an optimist than a pessimist. This is why I describe this film as more of a feel-good movie than anything.
All-in-all, Amélie is a fantastic movie. If its in my top 5 foreign movies and it’s at #2, that shows that it’s pretty fantastic in my eyes. I’d recommend it to anyone who loves a good romance while not being too lovey-dovey and basic for any other romance. The soundtrack is fantastic as well; It all seems to work out pretty great when they put everything together. The original plot, the music, and everything, it’s all great.
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