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A Very Long Engagement

A Very Long Engagement (2004)

tomatometer

78

Average Rating: 7.4/10
Reviews Counted: 143
Fresh: 112 | Rotten: 31

A well-crafted and visually arresting drama with a touch of whimsy.

80

Average Rating: 7.3/10
Critic Reviews: 35
Fresh: 28 | Rotten: 7

A well-crafted and visually arresting drama with a touch of whimsy.

audience

84

liked it
Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 63,048

My Rating

Movie Info

Audrey Tautou, who rose to international stardom with the title role in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's worldwide smash Amà (C)lie, reunites with the director for this drama, set during the darkest days of World War I and its immediate aftermath. Mathilde (Tautou) is a pretty but frail young women who was left with a bad leg after a childhood bout with polio. Mathilde lives in a small French village with her Aunt Bà (C)nà (C)dicte (Chantal Neuwirth) and Uncle Sylvain (Dominique Pinon), and is engaged to

R, 2 hr. 13 min.

Drama, Romance, Art House & International

Guillaume Laurant, Jean-Pierre Jeunet

May 24, 2005

$6.2M

Warner Bros. Pictures

A Very Long Engagement Trailer & Photos

More Trailers and Videos (1)

Cast

Critic Reviews for A Very Long Engagement

All Critics (150) | Top Critics (35) | Fresh (121) | Rotten (32) | DVD (30)

War, it says, is what separates love from hate, life from death and the beautiful from the ugly -- and Jeunet's film says it with great invention and artistry.

December 22, 2004 Full Review Source: Sacramento Bee | Comment
Joe Baltake
Sacramento Bee
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Tautou, as always, makes this an enchanting trip.

December 22, 2004 Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel | Comment
Roger Moore
Orlando Sentinel
Top Critic IconTop Critic

This is grand cinema.

December 22, 2004 Comment
Tom Long
Detroit News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The comic-dramatic divide of A Very Long Engagement is difficult to traverse, much less conquer. It's simply hard to be charmed with all those corpses scattered about.

December 22, 2004 Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press | Comment (1)
Terry Lawson
Detroit Free Press
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Merging heart-wrenching emotions with quirky humor and splicing bloody war footage with goofy comedy, the movie mixes vastly disparate elements into a surprisingly smooth blend.

December 21, 2004 Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune | Comment
Jeff Strickler
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The overall assemblage is shaky, but grand.

December 21, 2004 Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | Comment
Eric Harrison
Houston Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Beautiful WWI love story with gruesome battle scenes.

January 4, 2012 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
Brian Costello
Common Sense Media

As in any fable, there are spires, towers and moats, and it's a spellbinding saga - a macabre dance choreographed by its romance's throbbing heart. Mathilde and Manech's love left its mark in many places, so why not the grungiest and war-torn?

November 22, 2010 Full Review Source: Suite101.com | Comment
Nick Rogers
Suite101.com

A Very Long Engagement is Jeunet's most accomplished effort- if not necessarily by far, given his illustrious filmography- because it crosses the barrier between his world and invades ours.

December 23, 2008 Full Review Source: IGN Movies | Comment
Todd Gilchrist
IGN Movies

Filmmaker Jeunet applies his aestheticized approach (which worked well for Amelie) to a WWII melodrama to some mixed results.

July 30, 2007 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | Comments (2)
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com Source: EmanuelLevy.Com

A satisfying, novel-like film about a woman searching for her fiance at the end of World War I

July 20, 2006 Full Review Source: Movie City News | Comment
Douglas Pratt
Movie City News

It's a romantic epic, an intense and gripping look at WWI, and a nifty little mystery-quest all rolled into one.

July 28, 2005 Full Review Source: DVD Clinic | Comment
Scott Weinberg
DVD Clinic

a successful genre combination of a war film, period romance, detective story and black comedy

July 21, 2005 Full Review Source: Draxblog Movie Reviews | Comment
Dragan Antulov
Draxblog Movie Reviews Source: Draxblog Movie Reviews

We movie buffs are being rightfully spoiled by a company that knows how valuable the stuff in our wallets really is.

July 16, 2005 Full Review Source: Film Threat | Comment
Rory L. Aronsky
Film Threat

Jean-Pierre Jeunet represents that select group of filmmakers who treat special effects as their own art.

July 16, 2005 Full Review Source: Film Threat | Comment
Rory L. Aronsky
Film Threat
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for A Very Long Engagement

View All

An engaging and emotional film, which sweeps you into the world of its characters, and has striking cinematography. In fact the visuals are the best thing about the film. It's a visual powerhouse of a film, mixing gritty visual conventions of the war genre with scenes of a more romantic visual style, both are done

January 24, 2012
Joel K.
Joel Kelly

Super Reviewer

Indeed a very long and tedious engagement. In fact, it didn't engage me, but on the contrary, it began to bore me after a while. Simply not my cup of tea. Recommended for public in general, though.

April 16, 2011
imrealgod
familiar stranger

Super Reviewer

A Very Long Engagement Quotes

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    1. Tina Lombardi: I regret nothing. Except my hair.
    – Submitted by Pierre H (3 months ago)

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Foreign Titles

  • A Very Long Engagement (Un Long Dimanche de Fiancailles) (DE)
  • A Very Long Engagement (UK)
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