"Un Long Dimanche de Fiançailles (A Very Long Engagement)" directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (2004)

**** 1/2 (out of five stars)

"A Very Long Engagement" is a film completely controlled by two of the strongest personas in modern cinema. Jean-Pierre Jeunet is known for his flair for whimsy and fantasy. Audrey Tautou is known for her quirky appeal. randomness is known for loving them both.

With that backdrop, I attended a screening of "A Very Long Engagement" yesterday afternoon at one of Manhattan's great single screen theatres, The Paris. I'm very used to hearing foreign tongue when attending foreign films in Manhattan. In fact, it's one of the things that makes going to the theatre much more special than simply watching a DVD in the comfort of home. I was very surprised, though, that literally the majority of the near capacity crowd at the Paris were speaking French. It made the screening really feel like an event.

Jeunet's adaption of Sébastien Japrisot's novel about a young Frenchwoman's search for her soldier fiancé at the end of World War I is certain to divide critics. Those who focus on the fairytale aspect of Jeunet's world will likely find the film a bit schizoid. His is a world of wonder that oftentimes doesn't exactly gibe with his depiction of the horrors of war. But that's simply nitpicking. It's a beautifully filmed ride on a cinematic rollercoaster. Where Amelié's pallete of greens and yellows conveyed the whimsy of the storyline, "Long Engagement" works entirely in quiet, sonber sepia tones. The tone and color, in fact, are very reminiscent of Jeunet's 1991 masterpiece, "Delicatessen." As a director, though, he's grown significantly since the Rube Goldberg sort of fascinations of "Delicatessen" and "City of Lost Children." "Engagement," instead, is a very complicated story of loss and redemption. I really can't go too much into the plot. It folds and unwinds into a mesmerizing maze of a mystery that sticks with you long after a first viewing and almost demands a second.

Audrey Tautou simply steals every scene of the film. The camera loves her. It's cliché, but there's no denying it. Her role isn't that far removed from her earlier turn with Jeunet but is devastatingly captivating. Certain scenes and images have stuck with me long after my viewing solely due to Audrey's performance. Once the film is in a wider release and some of you have actually seen it as well I'll go into detail on some of those.

The only fault with "Engagement" is that it tries to do too much and, as a result, fails to carry through everything with equal weight. It's a romance! It's war picture! It's a mystery! It's a art piece! It's all of these and more but, as a result, sometimes gets a bit messy. It's simply a great piece of work, though.