Matt and I rented A Very Long Engagement last night. I had really wanted to see this when it came out because I loved Audrey Tautou in Amelie and I knew it had the same director. Of course, various things came up and I never got to the movie while it was in theatres. We saw it at Blockbuster last night and I decided to finally watch it.

This was maybe not the best decision as it was already past 8 and I was quickly starting to crash (so... very... sleepy...). Add to that the slow pacing of the movie, and the at times completely indiscernible subtitles, and I can't believe I stayed awake through the whole thing.

Seriously, the subtitles were so bad I had to go find a script online to follow along (that script has a few errors - numbers missing and whatnot - but at least I could read it!). This might not have been a problem for most people, but the wide-screen version of the movie on our smallish TV made for some pretty tiny type. Plus they used italics. Seriously, what the heck were they thinking with that? And then sometimes the subtitles were on light or dappled backgrounds. Argh!

Now I think if circumstances would have been different (bigger TV, less tired) I would have absolutely loved this movie. Normally I am totally a-ok with slow pacing (heck, look at the Firefly pilot). There are some little bits in the movie that are definitely identifiable as having the same influences as Amelie, but it is different enough that it doesn't feel like they tried to do the same thing twice.

Audrey Tautou is gorgeous (of course) and really makes you feel for her character. I loved that they didn't play her as sunnily optimistic; she was much more subdued, with a determined hope that you can see her questioning at times. Supporting characters never resorted to caricatures (with the exception of Urbain Cancelier, but that may have been because I recognized him from Amelie and the character's demeanor is quite similar). Also, Jodie Foster is in the movie! Big surprise there when I saw that on the case. Her French (to my untrained ear) sounded really good!

All in all, I would recommend it to people who like dramas or sad love stories. Just have a big TV. Or keep that script handy. And have some coffee first.