He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not (2002) (AKA
"A la folie... pas du tout")
Spoilers:
I will try my best not to spoil anything important
or clever about this wonderful movie in my review.
I would suggest to anyone that they see the film as
soon as possible before someone ruins it for them.
If you've been told much of anything about this film's
plot, you won't like it. It takes fresh eyes to see
it and truly enjoy it.
"He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not" is
probably the most engaging and impressive foreign
film I've seen since "Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon." Not that they have anything
in common expect perhaps a comma in their English
titles.
I heard a bit of (incorrect) buzz
about the film before I went to see it. I thought
it was going to be sort of a "Sliding
Doors" kind of a thing. You know, one of those
films that explores to possible realities in diverse
tangents evolving from one moment, one choice. I thought
"He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not" was going to be two
storylines about a relationship, one where the couple
ends up in love and one where they do not. This isn't
what the film is about at all. What the film does
is far more amazing than just that although its device
of covering a story in an odd chronology is similar
to "Sliding Doors" and other films of that ilk.
Audrey Tautou, probably the most
popular foreign female actress currently to be seen
in American multiplexes thanks to "Amalie,"
is the lead here. She is phenomenal. The film starts
with her cute and impish face peering out from a seeming
sea of red roses and flowers into one of the most
engrossing love stories to be seen in film this year.
But Tautou's character has such a wonderful and unusual
arc here that, once the film has completely played
out, we see what an amazing job she has done. Her
waif like qualities only enhance what she does here.
Samuel Le Bihan ("Brotherhood of
the Wolf") seems underused as her love interest during
much of the opening of the film but that notion is
dispelled with his impressive performance in the second
half of the film. Like Tautou, he performs with perfect
pitch here.
Writer/director Laetitia Colombani
has crafted a wonderful film full of twists and turns
and unanticipated surprises. This is a remarkable
effort for only her first feature film. And while
the epilogue of the film leaves a little to be desired
(and goes on far too long), it cannot negate the impact
of her work during the first 80 minutes of the film.
This is a film that should make quite a splash in
America and cause film aficionados to look for her
name in future releases. This is a career-making film.
It's the little things that count
here and Colombani hits all of them right on the head,
leaving her audiences reeling. "He Loves Me, He Loves
Me Not" is an awesome film full of surprises and guaranteed
to delight as well as stun and cause reflection.
Notes:
In French with English subtitles.
Viewed in Austin at a press sneak
at the Dobie Theater in February 2003.
