A Very Long Engagement - DVD Review

A Very Long Engagement is a film with a very simple message wrapped in an overly complicated, yet incredibly pretty package. Always the romantic, filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet honestly believes that love can do the impossible. It's a force in the world beyond explanation, the power of which can change fate. Only a true cynic couldn't like a film with a message like that. The problems arise because Jeunet's true love is with his vision of the world and the creative force of his undeniably talented technical team. Love doesn't need to be this complicated.

Moving back and forth in time and place, A Very Long Engagement tells the story of woman (Amelie's Audrey Tautou), who despite all evidence to the contrary, refuses to believe her lover has been killed in WWI, because she doesn't feel it in her heart. Jeunet and his co-writer Laurent, adapting a popular novel, use the entire world as their canvas to tell the tale, moving back and forth with dozens of characters and almost as many subplots, until the viewer is so overwhelmed just trying to follow the story they're ready to believe in the power of anything.

Criticizing a film for being overly complicated seems a little silly in a world where most films can be summarized in five words or less but A Very Long Engagement feels like a 900-page novel crammed into a 132 minute film. The celluloid is virtually bursting at the seams with images and ideas (and if you add the incredibly informative commentary by Jeunet, you may burst a brain cell) that the movie verges on the edge of becoming more exhausting than romantic. The gorgeous cinematography by Bruno Delbonel (and its perfect video transfer on this DVD) and the perfect score by Angelo Badalamenti make the film well worth your time, as it's simply a more beautiful film than you're likely to find at your video store, but it's just a tad too frenetic for its own good. You may find yourself checking out of the story and just looking at the very pretty pictures, as you can barely read fast enough to keep up with the plot.

I love all of Jeunet's films, including most of this one, for their wit, creativity, and recognition that film is, first and foremost, a visual medium. But, with A Very Long Engagement, I felt, for the first time, that the creative genius of the man almost needed to be reined in to keep the audience with the film. He's got so many fantastic ideas that you don't want them all crammed into one experience. A Very Long Engagement is Amelie times ten. It will make your head spin, and that's clearly what Jeunet wants, to replicate the dizziness that comes from love, but it may leave you more tired than confident in the power of human emotions. A little more calm humanity and this would have been a masterpiece, like Amelie, instead of just a good film from a fantastic filmmaker.