The movie centers on Amelie, an innocent and naive girl in Paris, who decides to change the world by changing the lives of the people she knows, while struggling with her own isolation. Along the way, Amelie discovers love.
Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Amelie is one of those once-in-a-decade comedies which scatters its charm like pearls from a broken necklace, all the more adorable because they are not real.
Amelie contains enough material for a dozen or so charming shorts, but stretched to feature length, the whimsy grows wearisome, and the film delights far less than it seems to desire.
Tautou is a remarkable young actress. Her wide-eyed, gamine look, reminiscent of a young Audrey Hepburn or Leslie Caron, gives Amelie an innocence and vulnerability that is so essential to make the story work.
There really aren't all that many movies made at this level of achievement whose subject matter and tone both support the idea that the world and the people in it are basically good.
