Michel Gondry wrote and directed this melancholy little film about a young man, Stephane, who, unwilling to cope with the realities of grief and loneliness, would rather escape into a vivid dream world over which he maintains much more control than he does in real life. He has never completely dealt with the death of his father, to whom he was very close, and is on friendly if awkward terms with his mother, who he comes to live with in Paris. He falls for his next door neighbor, Stephanie (played by Charlotte Gainsbourg), but has trouble communicating his feelings to her. He likes her because, as he tells her at one point, she's the only person he knows who is "different," but he approaches personal relationships like a child, throwing tantrums and lashing out in cruelty when he becomes frustrated by his inability to communicate what he feels. Gondry fills his movie with dream images and sequences, keeping us slightly off balance so that we feel somewhat like Stephane himself, never sure whether a conversation or episode is the product of a real-life encounter or of Stephane's vivid but troubled mind.
I like Gael Garcia Bernal very much as an actor. He has the charm and looks to fall back on easy heartthrob roles, but he instead has chosen challenging, and many times unglamorous, parts for himself. There's much to like about Stephane, but there's also much about him that is unpleasant. Charlotte Gainsbourg gives a lovely performance as Stephanie, especially in the film's final moments, when Stephane says some hurtful things to her before crumbling into her embrace like a baby. There's a great deal of whimsical humour sprinkled throughout the film, provided mostly by Stephane's co-workers at a graphic design office, but the overall tone of the film is quite sad and poignant, and the open-ended conclusion leaves us wondering just how o.k. Stephane is going to be. We admire his imagination, but understand how inadequate his dreams and fantasies have been in preparing him for the harsh realities of life.
In English, French and Spanish.
Grade: A-
I like Gael Garcia Bernal very much as an actor. He has the charm and looks to fall back on easy heartthrob roles, but he instead has chosen challenging, and many times unglamorous, parts for himself. There's much to like about Stephane, but there's also much about him that is unpleasant. Charlotte Gainsbourg gives a lovely performance as Stephanie, especially in the film's final moments, when Stephane says some hurtful things to her before crumbling into her embrace like a baby. There's a great deal of whimsical humour sprinkled throughout the film, provided mostly by Stephane's co-workers at a graphic design office, but the overall tone of the film is quite sad and poignant, and the open-ended conclusion leaves us wondering just how o.k. Stephane is going to be. We admire his imagination, but understand how inadequate his dreams and fantasies have been in preparing him for the harsh realities of life.
In English, French and Spanish.
Grade: A-