A Very Long Engagement (2004)

Anyone who hopes that the re-pairing of the French actress Audrey Tautou with the director Jean-Pierre Jeunet is going to result in another "Amelie" is going to be disappointed, as this film is a very different kettle of fish.  Set during and after World War I, she plays a lame young lady who refuses to believe that her childhood sweetheart and now lover is dead, despite his having been arrested with four other army misfits and having been sent to certain death over the enemy line.  She retains some of the optimism of her Amelie character but without the quirky ingratiating quality; here Tautou plays determined and persistent, and one is caught up in her obsession until the movie reaches its not-quite-expected ending.  The period and battle scenes are beautifully recreated, but the film is probably a little too long and with too many characters to fully absorb the viewer.  I have a lot of time for the director since his early films "Delicatessen" and "City of Lost Children" rank amongst my favourites, and it is his incredibly visual eye which is the strong point of this film, rather more so than the generally fine acting.