Page 18 • Thursday, January 20, 2005 A&E
A lovely, beautiful
alivf* r>lo:»v,o tU„4. i i , .. ^
The Pendulum
Blake Hinton
Reviewer
A few years ago, Jean Pierre Jeunet burst
onto the international scene with the mega-hit
Amelie. What made “Amelie” so unique was
more than the fact that it was a great film.
Amelie displayed a new directorial direction
for Jeunet.
The film was characterized by the use of spe
cial effects to create a whimsical and almost
surreal attitude. Now Jeunet uses that same style
on a very different story, that of World War I,
in the magical film, “A Very Long
Engagement.”
The story of a “A Very Long Engagement”
seems unique, but simple enough in the begin
ning. The film opens in the trenches of World
War I where five condemned soldiers are being
led to a cniel death for the crime of self-muti
lation. For their death sentence, they are led to
the front line trench and then thrown out into
No-Man s Land to be either shot or to die of
exposure.
The film then switches to the lover of one
of those soldiers named Mathilde (Audrey
Tatou), She is living with her aunt and uncle
on the coast of France and has not given up
the idea that Manech (Gaspard Ulliel) is still
alive. Mathilde claims that she would know if
he was truly dead. Therefore, despite reports
that he died in No-Man’s Land, Mathilde
decides to launch her own investigation. As she
delves into the execution of the five soldiers,
she realizes that things aren’t what they seem.
At the same time, a mysterious woman begins
murdering officers involved in different parts of
that fateful execution.
As one can see, “A Very Long Engagement”
is slightly deceiving. What starts off as a seem
ingly basic stoiy unravels into something far
more complex. This is a great quality of the
film. One of the most engaging things about
this movie is wondering where the movie will
go next as the events surrounding the execution
get more and more complex. One should be
warned that for the first hour, “A Very Long
Engagement” is a bit too complex for its own
good. Once one gets into the film it all falls
into place, but it wouldn’t be surprising if the
audience was a bit confused in the beginning.
This IS one of the veiy few flaws of an over
all great film.
It s interesting to think that many critics have
dready complained about two specific things iri
the film. The first problem is using a whimsi-
cd approach to tell a war stoiy and number two
that the film is overstuffed with characters and
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plot twists. beautiful scenery and
plot. Yet, those critics seem to be mi •
important thing; in the end this “
two Hlms in one. an explo^tion
of war and a labvrinth h . ^ horrors
Mathilde. Je '«■ by
one hand, the audience o..,
of war by way of intense battle*^
authentic feeling of place r, “wtl an
j »t
those scenes more powerful and ,
complex detective storv
splendidly. ^^comphshed both
subplots and char^ters amonr"*
Yet, if this film is clutte^ ^^O'thing else,
films be cluttered with
things. It seems as if every sL^T
atmg another engaging eh,™ f de
sman detail The „',
me most powerful n
film come from small things like
woman a condemned
srnall detail. Tl.e most a
film come from small things like
woman finding a note “ “ndemm
line of dialogue that et"’/ °r a
Jeunet really makes this n, r ending,
TT-e acting i, ve^ gooT.;:^
may not be the most dramafc", ^^^u
extremely photogenic S *he
face. Her saucer eyes seem ^ expressive
emotion with little effort Tt, ° ^ “""'ey so much
who firlfm fte smaller rofe 1 T P“P‘e
even rf their scenes m,! k ® ‘■"e job
f “>is adds to
has created another g^eat^ I■'eunet
(tepiction of the horrors on ft
*™e love off the battlefieU
In
Theaters
“Are We There
Yet?^’
Jan. 20
Ice Cube, Nia
Long, Aleisha
Alien
“Hide and Seek”
Jan. 28
Robert De Niro,
Dakota Fanning,
Famke Janssen
on.edu or
“MilkiJnd Hon
Jan, 21
Amid,
Eleanor Hutchins
Anthony Howard
Suwan,
_ _ Chatree
Om>Anong
Panyawong