A Very Long Engagement

Audrey Tautou reunites with her Amelie director for a World War I love story that is both absorbing and incredible to look at. Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s filmmaking style is equal parts epic and quirky, resulting in a film that is like no other. Tautou plays a woman whose lover is presumed dead after being punished for self-mutilation on the battlefield. Due to a gut instinct, she believes he is alive and sets out to find him. This is one of 2004’s better-looking films, with an award-worthy score by Angelo Badalamenti (Twin Peaks). Tautou, who has had some minor success with English-speaking roles (Dirty Pretty Things) is luminous in her French element. Everybody keeps using the word "luminous" to describe her, and it’s because that’s the word that fits her perfectly. Elements of the film remind me of Stanley Kubrick’s brilliant Paths of Glory