le fabuleux destin d'amélie poulain- movie review

Yes, I finally saw one of the most famous French movie ever made. My, taking French lessons didn't help much, because I'm still in the first level, so I needed the subtitles to help me a bit. But, what the hell, I saw it.

So, well its about this girl called Amélie poulain who had a secluded childhood, because her mother died when she was really young, and her father kept her far, except during her monthly check-up. That was the only time in the month when her father touched her, so the kid {who's super cute} gets so excited that her heart beats intensify leading her father to believe that she has some mysterious heart disease, that he is unaware of. So she gets home-schooled.

Isn't the girl cute?

The soonest she grows up, she leaves her home to work as a waitress in Montmarte, and lives in a small apartment by herself. On the day, of Princess Diana's death, She accidentally drops the cap of a bottle, which in turn hits a tile, which in turn exposes a hole, where she finds a box which belonged to a kid of the previous occupant [who's obviously a grown up man right now]. So she returns the box to him in a very cute manner, without letting herself know to him. The man, on finding a part of his lost memory decides to re-unite with his estranged family and this development makes Amélie so happy that she self-employs herself as a matchmaker/goodwill ambassador to all those people in need of it around her. OH! there's also this guy in the movie who's real name is Mathieu Kassovitz, and she plays this cat and mouse game with him, since she falls for him pretty bad, but also cause she's so socially shy, she can't approach him herself. So, that's what the movie's about.


Also, the cutest extract has to be, when she convinces her father to take a vacation by stealing his favourite toy, which is a small dwarf, and sends him postcards from the toy [sic] from various cities around the world. It's something like I've never seen before.

Audrey Tautou

The actress who plays Amélie is Audrey Tautou , who has a funny expression on her face with her eyes popping out, almost cartoon like, in most part of the film. But she's kind of endearing in some parts, and the way her character thinks and acts like is very weird, yet cute.
Since she's shown to be very shy with strangers given her isolated childhood, we're not supposed to understand as to why she does certain things the way she does it. But she's pretty honest to the character, and not once does she flicker away from it.
The movie has a very post card feel to it. The way it's shot, and the colours and the cinematography almost makes you feel like you're watching the locales of France in a post card slideshow. But at times, it gets a little too stretched.


So, I guess, I'l give it a 2.5 star rating. Give it a watch on a lazy afternoon, it might just makes you feel nice.


UPDATE:So, when Karman pointed out about the background score which totally skipped my mind while writing the post, I need to point out that the background score of the movie by Yann Tiersen totally takes the pie. Its so awesome and poetic like that you want to just close your eyes and hear the movie out.
So, the final rating of the movie will have to be 3.5, with some credit to the music.


Final rating: 3.5/5
[Also worth it cause of the amazing music and background score]