Rumba is a bizarre little confection. The almost-silent movie concerns a loving couple whose life revolves around dancing. After a tragic car crash, the dancing is replaced by severed limbs, brain damage and a ruinous house fire.

Of course, it's a comedy.

Rumba is a series of sight gags created by Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon and Bruno Romy, the filmmakers and actors who also made L'Iceberg. You know you're entering weird turf from opening scenes in a classroom where the teacher (Fiona Gordon) has the students chanting nonsense. Her husband (Dominique Abel), the gym teacher, dances past her classroom window in a manic fashion, and before too long, they are at home doing what they love best: Dancing. Their house is full of dance trophies. Their world is all bright colours and childlike wonder, and their drive to yet another dance competition yields a typical comedy routine: changing clothes and putting on makeup and twisting their bodies like pretzels, while also driving the car. It's funny and clever and very silly.

Then they encounter a man too dense to handle his own suicide. His pathetic action leads to that car crash, to amnesia and to amputation, but the dance of comedy continues nonetheless. A particular moment in which Fiona tries to juggle her crutches and her briefcase, before falling out a window, is downright inspired.

Not every routine in Rumba works and some of the comedy bits lean toward boring, but for the most part, each segment is brisk and visually delightful. The unusual elements of the movie certainly never wear thin.

Shadow dances, stolen wheelchairs, a melted phone that won't stop ringing -- Rumba is a fantasy and a love story that never stops being hopeful and humorous. The few words of dialogue are in French, with English subtitles.

(This film is rated PG)

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