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A Very Long Engagement
December 17, 2004
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By: Gary Kramer - gkramer@aroundphilly.com
Gary M. Kramer is a Philadelphia-based film critic who thinks Sandra Bullock mambos. He likes eating ethnic food and watching ethnic movies—though not necessarily both at the same time or from the same country.
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The sweeping historical romance, "A Very Long Engagement," is an exquisite meditation on love, fate, destiny, and war. Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet re-teams with his "Amelie" star, Audrey Tautou, and creates magic once again.
The film's brilliance is in its details-- and there are plenty of juicy ones. Some vignettes explain how soldiers, weary of combat, shoot themselves so as to be unfit for duty, while others, like a running joke about a dog, are merely humorous.
Then there are the romantic details of the intense relationship between Manech (Gaspard Ulliel) and Matilde (Audrey Tautou). "A Very Long Engagement" slowly and playfully reveals all, much like Matilde, when she does a lovely striptease for her boyfriend by match light.
Jeunet uses a voice-over narrator to tell the story, and in brief episodes, recounts the actions being described. This technique is particularly effective in the opening scenes when five condemned prisoners are introduced, setting the story into motion.
The tale is about two lovers, kept apart by war. When Matilde finds out her fiancé Manech was one of the condemned prisoners, she believes he is alive, and searches desperately to find him. Following a series of leads and clues, Matilde even hires a private detective to help her locate her long lost love.
This narrative structure allows Jeunet to do what he does best, which is to build elaborate, vastly entertaining sequences that heighten the drama and keep the audience spellbound. In one episode, Jodie Foster turns up as a woman who can provide information on two members of the condemned unit. She can't talk about the facts, but must write them to Matilde in letters, making the drama even more tantalizing.
Jeunet has fun presenting these outlandish scenes, and milking them for all they are worth. What is more, this storytelling makes the film's pivotal final scene all the more interesting.
"A Very Long Engagement" also benefits from Audrey Tautou's magnificent performance in the leading role. Tautou is an incredibly versatile actress (see "Dirty Pretty Things"), and she is particularly affecting here. Playing a woman with polio, but no false hope, her expressions upon receipt of both good and bad news are heartbreaking.
As with all of Jeunet's films, the visuals are dazzling, and this film wondrously re-creates WWI Paris, albeit with the help of some computer graphic imaging. The soundtrack by Angelo Badalamenti is also noteworthy, and strikes the perfect chord of sentiment and realism.
"A Very Long Engagement" is a very, very fine film.
"A Very Long Engagement" opens today in select theaters nationwide.
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