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The movie Amelie did not inspire much fence sitting. You either loved its tale of whimsy and the naive heroine obsessed with good deeds or you found its bright, colorful concoction almost nauseating, like when you eat too much cotton candy. I was one of the rare critics who couldn't decide. While I did think parts of the movie were delightful, I also grew tired of it all well before the end arrived. What I really wanted, I now realize, was for director Jean-Pierre Jeunet to continue making the kind of dark, fantastical tales he did in City of Lost Children and Delicatessen. Amelie had the brilliant visual design, but it didn't have the weight of those earlier movies.

Maybe Jeunet thought the same thing, as his latest movie, A Very Long Engagement, takes a romantic tale and combines it with a war movie. It again stars Audrey Tautou as a young, beautiful woman with an obsession. It's 1917, and her fiance has gone missing at the front. All accounts point to his death, but she refuses to believe it, convinced that if he had died she would've "felt" something. So she writes letter after letter, hoping to find anyone who might have news of his whereabouts. Her aunt and uncle indulge her fantasy, as does Jeunet, who offers flashbacks of the young lovers at various ages. How can you not believe true love will conquer all (even death) when you see how, at the age of nine, Manech carried the polio-bound Mathilde to the top of her beloved lighthouse?

That scene is one of many striking images Jeunet and his cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel conjure over the course of 135 minutes. Again, Jeunet is not so interested in the realistic as in the fantastic. When one soldier is drafted for the war, a rushing wind suddenly creates a gorgeous ballet of grain in the fields. Off-kilter close-ups dominate the proceedings, along with unusual camera placements and lush, unnatural lighting.

In the midst of all this beauty, though, there is fierce ugliness as well. Early in the film we see Manech mutilating his own hand (he was trying to get sent home, back to his beloved Mathilde). He's court-martialed for it, and the punishment is to be sent out into No Man's Land, where his almost certain fate is death. There are numerous battle sequences around this storyline; and while they don't reach the intensity of Saving Private Ryan, they're not like the war movies of classic Hollywood. The sound design, in particular, is overwhelming, as it emphasizes the horrors of battle. And in one audacious moment, a foot soldier who's about to be strafed by a passing plane throws up a hand grenade that blows up his attacker.

It's a strange combination-dreamy love story and brutal trench warfare-and it doesn't always work. My friend Garth, who loved Amelie, found A Very Long Engagement less satisfying, and I suspect that part of it was because the war scenes always shocked him out of the reverie the flashbacks created. The tone was too inconsistent for him to ever settle in. For me, though I appreciated the idea of contrasting the joys of romance with the dirty details of war, the execution left a lot to be desired. I kept thinking back to Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory, another WWI tale about soldiers being unfairly court-martialed. It's never fair to contrast anyone to Kubrick, but Jeunet is particularly ill-suited to the comparison. Kubrick rigorously structured his films, never allowing their tone to slip for one second. Jeunet has a much freer approach, but it means that his movie sometimes feels scatter-shot and unfocused.

Nonetheless, there's much to like in A Very Long Engagement. Gaspard Ulliel is somewhat of a cipher as Manech, but Tautou is captivating. One standout scene involving matches in a barn might be the loveliest "sex" scene in movies all year. It's also nice to see Jeunet's usual cast of odd secondary characters (Dominique Pinon, among others) along with some new ones (Jodie Foster is a strong addition). There's also Jeunet's characteristic droll, humorous voiceover that ties everything together. And the film's finale is a gorgeous tracking shot that leaves the audience wondering what will happen next. What will happen next for Jean-Pierre Jeunet is an even more interesting question, as he tries to tie his powerful visual style to stories and themes that match.   

J. Robert Parks  12/11/2004