Amélie Reviews
Top Critic
Tautou is gloriously alive in the title role.
A blast of pure movie bliss, a hilarious, imaginative and exhilarating love letter to the romantic in all of us.
The sunniest face and the greatest acclaim belong to Audrey Tautou, who is new to these shores. A delight in the title role, she's like a young Audrey Hepburn, making us laugh and feel empathy without feeling manipulated.
There's so much here, and all of it delightful.
| Original Score: 5/5
A delectable French confection ... sure to please America's sweet tooth.
| Original Score: 4.5/5
I love watching movies that sweep me into a magical, happier place, and leave me with an all's-right -with- the-world contentment. Amelie did just that.
A movie whose embrace of cinema is so passionate it could be mistaken for an embrace of life.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Anyone who loves movies will have no defense against the seductions of Amelie -- either the film or the young woman.
So terrific it might single-handedly rescue the 'feel-good movie' from the garbage heap of overused and discredited phrases.
The more you know of the French way of, say, roasting a chicken or organizing a handbag, the funnier and more delightful you will find this film.
Do not be surprised to see Amelie pull a Crouching Tiger and be nominated as both best foreign film and best film.
One leaves the theater thinking, as so many Americans of past generations have, 'Ah, there's always Paris.' And there will always be Amelie, too.
Delightful and original, the film conjures up a corner of Paris distinct and specific, yet fairy-tale fanciful.
Its whimsical, free-ranging nature is often enchanting; the first hour, in particular, is brimming with amiable, sardonic laughs. But there comes a point where you feel like Jeunet is forcing whimsy down your throat with a plunger.
Goes straight past cute and heads directly for sublime.
Full Review
| Original Score: A-
There's real magic in this movie -- and enough energy to power a whole city on a dark and gloomy night.
| Original Score: 4/4
Tautou provides Amélie with its beating heart.
| Original Score: 3.5/4
See it with eyes opened wide and your heart on your sleeve.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/4
It's hard to be charmed, hard to think of a movie as a delightful trifle, when you're so conscious of how hard the filmmakers are working to make it charming.
Irresistibly endearing, with a visual verve all its own.
The first half of this insistently goofy romantic comedy buzzes with the marauding ingenuity of director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, but it overstays its welcome.
Fairly irresistible if you can keep your cynicism in check for a couple of hours.
| Original Score: 3/4
Features an aggressive, in-your-face romanticism that's noticeably lacking in genuine warmth.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
There is no denying that Amélie is, to paraphrase its title, fabulous.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4.5/5
It is overwritten and overdirected for the quaint, simple feelings it attempts to project.
While Amélie the plucky girl beguiles, Amélie the charming movie, already an international success, seduces.
Full Review
| Original Score: A-
Initially disarming, this simpering dolly grows increasingly wearisome.
It's the kind of motion picture that's both intelligent and immensely likable -- just like the main character.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
