A Very Long Engagement (M18)

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Romance

A French movie from the director and star of "Amelie" (Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Audrey Tautou) "A Very Long Engagement," is a very different love story based on the acclaimed novel by Sebastien Japrisot. Screenplay adaptation by Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Guillaume Laurant. As World War I draws to an end, a young French woman's greatest fight is about to begin. Mathilde receives word that her fiancé Manech is one of five soldiers who have been court-martialed and pushed out of an Allied trench into no-man's land... and almost certain death. But if Manech were dead, Mathilde would know. Summoning the courage, will and strength that only the heart can inspire, she embarks on an extraordinary journey to discover the fate of her lover. What follows is an investigation into the absurdity of war, the beauty of hope and the tenacity of the human heart.

Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet & his Director of Photography are great at setting the right colour for this film. Every scene is so easy on the eyes & they can send you into the exact era intended. It was so beautifully shot that one can just play this movie on the wall of a photo exhibition.

What I also enjoy are the Art Direction for this movie, background stories of the littlest characters (which makes everybody a somebody), & all the subtle humor, like the casual comments between Mathilde's uncle & the mail man.

Through Mithilde's investigation, everybody is giving their bit of the puzzle to the story. Sorta like "Courage Under Fire", only not so tragic. One clue leads to another, but I find that all she had gathered only helped her to hold on a little longer. In the end, it wasn't really the clues that helped her find Manech.


Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Writer(s): Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Guillaume Laurant
Cast: Audrey Tautou, Gaspard Ulliel, Jerome Kircher, Dominique Bettenfeld, Jean Pierre Darroussin, Denis Lavant, Clovis Cornillac, Albert Dupontel, Chantal Neuwirth, Dominique Pinon, Marion Cotillard, Andre Dussollier, Ticky Holgado, Jodie Foster, Jean Paul Rouve, Julie Depardieu, Tcheky Karyo, Michel Vuillermoz, Jean Claude Dreyfus

1 star for Director, 2 for Photography & 1 for Art Direction.