A Very Long Engagement re-unites director Jean-Pierre Jeunet with his Amelie star, Audrey Tautou. A love story/battle tale/mystery hybrid, A Very Long Engagement has a once-upon-a-time flavour to the storytelling that is charming and a bit hypnotic. The film is based on Sebastien Japrisot's novel.
A Very Long Engagement, set at the end of World War I, begins with brief backgrounds on five men who are going to be court-martialed. The fate of these Frenchmen is to be pushed out onto the muck of no-man's land, the unprotected space between French and German armies. There, they will die.
Among these men is Manech (Gaspard Ulliel), the great love of Mathilde's (Audrey Tautou) life. The news that her soul mate is court-martialed and very likely dead is news Mathilde refuses to accept.
Slowly, she investigates the matter and its aftermath. Mathilde learns there is a small chance some of the men survived the ordeal -- but which ones? She must sift through confused identities, personal and official mendacity, war injuries, other people's fears and a whole pack of other issues before she finds the truth.
And among other things she learns along the way, Mathilde learns about the absolute horror of war.
A Very Long Engagement is a film that manages to combine, seamlessly, such items as sunny flashbacks to youth with extreme gore and war footage. One minute you look at beautiful countryside, and in the next, appalling battle scenes.
The film is tremendously busy and hugely populated, and yet the characters, no matter how brief their appearances, are memorable. Think Dickens.
Tautou anchors the film with her calm gaze and endless faith, and her performance is mesmerizing. It is her ability to see what others cannot and to look beneath the surface that moves events along. The look of the film reflects her unusual point of view, and A Very Long Engagment is visually superb.
We should add that A Very Long Engagement may seem to have all the hallmarks of the dreaded "chick flick," but it's not that kind of outing. The film is in French, with English subtitles.
(This film is rated 18-A)
Sun Rating: 4 out of 5
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