Bem Me Quer, Mal Me Quer

Audrey Tautou might at first sight seem to be an actress with limitations, but most of what goes through in her character's heads are shown in the eyes.

This starts as a family comedy about the innocent girl sending her loved one flowers and other presents. But it gets worse and in the end you're watching a thriller that doesn't make you feel at ease. It becomes a story of life and death and not just in the physical way.

The story is told from two view points. It remains exciting anyway.

"He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not (À la folie... pas du tout)" is a marvelous French twist.

The re-wind technique of different perspectives, descended from the Japanese "Rashomon," has combined entertainment with philosophical insight by the German Tom Tykwer, in such as "Run Lola Run," and with socio-political commentary in the Mexican "Amores Perros." Add in the American know-how of creepiness from "Fatal Attraction" and "One Hour Photo," and the French writer/director Laetitia Colombani, mais oui, applies it all to matters of the heart.

She uses both a rational and visual approach to an enormously entertaining take on "she says, he says"/"he loves she who is in love with he who is in love with she" etc. that is an unpredictable roller coaster.

One lead character is a cardiologist (the particularly hunky Samuel Le Bihan) and the other plays on our expectations of that gamin par excellence Audrey Tautou of "Amelie." We see her at first surrounded by flowers and heart decorations so of course our sympathies go out to her. Ah, how our interpretation of those wide black eyes can change! And if only Hollywood actresses would be willing to allow their images to be so cleverly manipulated.

Our other stereotypical assumptions also lead to other surprises. Unlike Hollywood, this movie respects our intelligence, and leaves us to figure out what's going on and anticipate what will happen after the end.

Just like it took awhile to feel good about "Singing in the Rain" after seeing "Clockwork Orange" and a certain classic rock song after "Reservoir Dogs," you may get a frisson of the creepies from Nat King Cole after this.

While you not may feel good at the end about particular characters and what they have done or will do, you will feel good about moviemaking and going to the movies.

It's really hard to talk about this movie without giving something away. I'll give away as little as possible, but my recommendation would be, stop reading this or any other review and just watch the movie, it's very good.

Since I don't want to give anything away I can't say much about the story. It starts as a movie about a cute, sweet girl in love, and the movie's use of an actress who exudes sweetness and innocence makes what happens as the movie progresses all the more startling. The movie is devoted to its one central trick, and what's notable is not the trick - lots of movies have tricks - but how much time is spent in showing off the filmmaker's cleverness. This could have been annoying or self indulgent but I enjoyed it. Some people won't be surprised - I'm really not as good as guessing twists as a lot of people (which is why I consider the movie Matchstick Men to be so poor in spite of good reviews; that one I guessed straight through to the end early on) - but I was surprised and quite delighted.

Be careful about reading these reviews because almost anything can be a spoiler. I'll just say that the DVD cover, the movie posters, marketing and even the movie title are deceptively breezy. No, this ain't Amelie. Rather, this movie delves pretty deep into the twisted workings of the human mind. It's very cleverly done in a non-linear fashion (like Citizen Kane, Rashomon, or my favourite Gilligan's Island episodes where we see the same thing from different points of view).

The acting is superb, and the direction is right on par. The only gripe I have with this film is that due to its stealthy presentation it sometimes suffers from an identity crisis. I believe this could have been remedied with a more dynamic musical score (that is, it would have been more powerful if the music reflected the changes in the film's "personality"). There may have been other minor flaws which prevent me from giving this film a higher rating, but overall it was a worthwhile experience.

This is an interesting story of obsessive love. We first explore the story from her point of view, then his. Given the main plot idea of obsessive love, it invites a comparison to "Fatal Attraction". This is a much better film. The plot is more interesting, with solid acting. There are a lot of inferences as to what happened in the film. We aren't spoon-fed the entire plot.

I found it to be quite enjoyable.