The French Amelie (2000), a monster hit in the country of its origin, is as offputting as it is enchanting. Winsome Audrey Tautou enacts an intensely shy, peculiar do-gooder of sorts who falls hard for a solitary fellow employed at a porn shop.
“Am I the only one who finds Amelie [the do-gooder] just a tad creepy?” asks critic Charles Taylor. No, I do too. I find the entire movie a tad creepy, for all its visual vivacity. Should we expect anything different from a film whose treatment of sex is contemptibly cheap, a romp without consequences? For one thing, even the porn shop receives a friendly nod from director Jean-Pierre Jeunet.
Cover of Amelie
