Amelie

Movie Name: Amelie (Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain)
Year of Release: 2001

Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Stars: Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz, Rufus, Lorella Cravotta, Jamel Debbouze, Dominique Pinon, Isabelle Nanty, Yolande Moreau, Claire Maurier, Serge Merlin, Clotilde Mollet

Genre: Comedy, Romance

Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 6
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Synopsis:

Director Jean Pierre Jeunet followed his Hollywood venture of "Alien: Resurrection", with what turned out to be his biggest critical and commercial success thus far, "Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain". The film focuses on the story of Amelie, a young and beautiful french woman, living in Paris as a waitress. The film delves deeper into the life of young Amelie, who was erroneously thought of having a heart condition when she was a little girl. Amelie leads a quiet life, but she finds a lost treasure belonging to the former occupant of her apartment, and decides to return it to him. Witnessing the happiness that gesture brings, she starts trying to accomplish this for the people around her, and to whom she's connected. All of this keeps consuming her until she meets Nino, and realizes she's been neglecting finding someone to love.
Jean-Pierre Jeunet who started his career with art director Marc Caro, has always been considered a director who focuses more on visuals than character development. "Amelie" who took the screens by storm in 2001, was the perfect example of a thin story brought to life with precious visual details, and anecdotal supporting characters. The film has a fairly straight premise, but it manages to imbue romanticism into Amelie's quest to help everyone while forgetting her own love life. It's a film that at times falls prey to an artificialism that makes the story feel overly sugary and renders the characters nothing more than sketches. The cast has nothing much to do, aside from bringing to life these collections of ticks and stereotypes, but Audrey Tautou manages to put some extra dimension in her character. The production team is impeccable, particularly the luscious cinematography from Bruno Delbonnel. An overrated film from an interesting director.