A romantic comedy can generate groans in many a male audience, especially if they see the words “Bullock,” “Cusack” or “Roberts” in the title sequence. This might seem like a trivial fact, but there are couples out there who will find themselves in heated debates over whether or not to see the new “damsel in the big city with ambitions attracted to the hotshot lawyer/businessman set” to the tune of a Carly Simon soundtrack. Makes you wonder how much money that went to “Notting Hill” was practically ripped out of the hand of males.
We need movies like these though, although they don’t have to be as bad as what comes out of Hollywood today. There needs to be a common ground in the battle of what to see on those weekend nights when drinking and rioting doesn’t seem like the cool thing to do. Ladies and gentlemen, if you haven’t already done so a million times over, let “Amelie” into your viewing space for the period of just two hours — and it just so happens to be WUD’s Midnight Movie this week.
Starting off with one of the most hilarious opening sequences in a long time, the audience is taken on a tour through the life of Amelie Poulain (Audrey Tautou, “He Loves Me … He Loves Me Not”), a painfully shy waitress who after discovering a time capsule in her bathroom is led on a mission of goodwill.
Along the way, Amelie helps a blind man realize all that is surrounding him and a jilted wife find the solace she so desperately needs, and teaches the local grocer how to behave himself in the company of others. All Amelie needs to do now is find happiness for herself, and she spots a candidate in Nino Quincampoix (Mathieu Kassovitz, “Birthday Girl”), another rarity who likes to scrape debris from the bottom of a photo booth for his own strange hobby.
What is there to look for in this French film that you couldn’t find in about anything else? Well, this film does the romantic comedy genre justice; it actually has a script that makes you feel for the heroine, instead of making you want to put your foot through the screen. The viewer starts to sympathize with Amelie’s lack of courage when dealing with matters that involve herself.
Instead of the usual groans and rolling of the eyes that would normally accompany a film like this, you hope that she gets the full picture and soon. The viewer starts to fall into Amelie’s innocent world, and her smile starts to become your own when you laugh at her playful way of getting back at people who have wronged.
See this movie for the colors, which makes this movie that much more enjoyable. Watch this movie for the acting, which is heartfelt and doesn’t seem forced. If anything else, see this movie so when you have to buy this for your significant other, you’ll know that this isn’t the normal junk that has romantic comedy attached to it.
“Amelie” is playing this Saturday at midnight in the lobby of Union South.
