Watching...

Amelie. This movie had a loooonnnnngggg way to go to win me over, but, for the most part, it did.

Let's count the red flags:

1. The main character looks like a precociously self-aware elfish French Bjork, or maybe Audrey Hepburn's goofy Gallic grandniece. She looks that way on the DVD box / movie poster, and she pretty much keeps it up throughout the movie itself.

2. It's, broadly, a romantic comedy.

2.(a) It's therefore, by definition, a chick flick.

3. It's got an Omniscient Narrator. A very busy one, too.

4. It's French.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed it. There were a few things in it I really liked. There was a bit in the middle with a sort of Greek chorus involving moving animal pictures on the wall and a claymation pig lamp, and a very clever thing with four photo booth pictures of a guy talking simultaneously. It did tend toward cleverness for its own sake, but I thought it mostly worked. The form elevated the material above genre (woo!), or something. I'm not sayin' it was Mad Max or anything, but I was pleasantly surprised.