A Very Long Engagement (Un long dimanche de fiançailles) | Review

Jeunet infuses a little the charm into an atypical war movie.

It’s never a good sign when those in charge of digging graves for perished soldiers like to get a head start on tomorrow’s load. In director/co-writer Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s taxingly long but splendidly designed A Very Long Engagement, France’s answer to Nathalie Portman- the cute-as-a-button Audrey Tautou (Dirty Pretty Things), plays the desperate and destined Mathilde. Featuring a strong-minded, iron-willed characterization the minuscule actress effectively carries over the same determination qualities from the Amelie Poulain character. Her fiancé (Gaspard Ulliel – Strayed) who has not returned from the war was just one amongst the homesick soldiers who happened to be missing a couple of fingers. As she embarks on a journey that is held together by what little faith that remains and a “love you – love you not” pattern, the script offers one kinder surprise after another. Jeunet supplies this film with a huge cast of supporting characters (Jodie Foster even practices her French language skills) and tallies them up with a narrative that is filled with many detailed puzzle pieces – names, legends and locations contribute to the protagonist’s overwhelming plight and this log of information certainly wrestles with the viewer’s attention span.

Fans of Jeunet/Tautou combo will feel that this film doesn’t pulsate in the same manner as Amelie, – the pacing seems drained by the thickness of story detail and the constant shifting between present tense and flashback mode sometimes infuses the bloodied World War I, Paths of Glory parts with a little too much romantic fluff. The soul mate denominator and the character’s quest display strands of the 2001 hit film and so does the film’s visual strategy. Cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel paints this postcard full of burnt mustard yellow and ground-colored and grayish-toned gradients add to the impeccable and glorious production value. The sublime moving camera techniques – full utilization of cranes to make movements that make the frame more interesting. Adapting Sébastien Japrisot’s novel with writing partner Guillaume Laurant, Jeunet’s ambitious project contains plenty of heart, with so much attention to detail you feel as if this is going into familiar terrain – but while A Very Long Engagement is perhaps the year’s best visual pleasure, but it remains an unaffecting one. While this skilled filmmaker aspired for a masterful evocation of compassion and carnage – essentially the film’s title speaks for itself – the film’s final reward is the word “end” and not the ending itself.

Rating 2.5 stars