An Engagement to Stand the Test of Time

Manech (Gaspard Ulliel, The Brotherhood of the Wolf) is not dead. It is a fact, something not eye witnesses, official documents or anything else can change. Manech is not dead, for if he was, Mathilde (Audrey Tautou, Dirty Pretty Things) would know.

Based on the novel by Sebastien Japrisot, A Very Long Engagement is the new flight of epic fancy born from the mind of City of Lost Children and Amélie director Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Set at the close of World War I, the film tells the story of a disabled young woman’s extraordinary journey to prove the death of her true love is false. Using guile, gumption and the perseverance of Job, she embarks on a journey that stretches across both sides of the French and German battle lines, unraveling a mystery that very well could lead to nothing more than heartbreak and sadness.

Mathilde is a young woman living in the French countryside with her uncle Sylvain (Dominique Pinon, Alien Resurrection) and aunt Bénédicte (Chantal Neuwirth, Madeline). Stricken with Polio at a young age, now in her early twenties she walks with a pronounced limp, unable to traverse long distances without the aid of a wheelchair. Not that Manech ever cared much about her ailment. He befriended Mathilde as a child, becoming protector, guardian and, as they grew into adulthood, lover and fiancé. So when he’s sent to the German front to fight, the couple are of course saddened. And yet, worry seems to be the furthest thing from either of their minds, both sure their love will easily withstand the horrors of war.

If only that were so. War is not something to be trifled with, and it certainly takes its toll on Manech. Sentenced to death for self-mutilation – a common practice by soldiers wishing to escape battlefield service – he’s thrown over into the nether world between the French and German lines along with four others, those in the high command willing to let the enemy do their inhuman dirty work for them. It is no-man’s land, the area between the trenches, and no one could have survived, each of the five brutally more than likely dispatched in one gruesome way or another.

Or were they? In her quest for answers Mathilde discovers there very well could be survivors, and against all reason she is positive Manech is one of them. Enlisting the aid of private detective Germain Pire (Ticky Holgado, And Now… Ladies and Gentlemen) and her own solicitor Pierre Marie Rouviers (Andre Dussollier, Vidocq), Mathilde’s investigation twists and bends and morphs from one turn to another, the truth seemingly always one step out of reach.

A Very Long Engagement is a wonderful movie. Full of life, love and the vitality of the human sprit, it also sheds light on a war given short shrift in both historical and theatrical mediums. Walking a fine line between the absurd and the abhorrent, Jeunet, as he so often does, has crafted a world singularly his own and constantly of interest. Like a French Rashomon, the movie comes together only in bits and pieces, each part of the puzzle not completely trustworthy due to the flawed and incomplete recollections of those involved. But, at its heart, this is a love story, a fairy tale about the enduring nature of amour working towards a conclusion both tragic and uplifting all in the very same breath Jeunet effortlessly takes away.

To talk about the intricacies of the plot would, of course, spoil the fun. There are pimps, spies, soldiers, bureaucrats, ‘other’ women, clandestine affairs, illegitimate children, heartache and happenstance running through the center of things from start to finish, Jeunet balancing them with the deft skills of a Barnum and Bailey ringmaster. Heck, he even throws a completely unrecognizable Jodie Foster (Panic Room, and speaking impeccable French) into the mix, her cameo having a profound effect towards helping Mathilde discover the truth.

Tautou is a marvel. Working for Jeunet for the second time, her Mathilde is so far beyond Amélie those who’ve only seen her there will be in for a shock. Forced to carry the entire picture upon her very svelte shoulders, the actress rises to the challenge marvelously, mixing fortitude, determination and hope into an intoxicating cocktail worth savoring again and again. She walks throughout with an impossibly sunny disposition that speaks acres to the longing buried deep within her heart. It is a marvelous piece of movie acting, and I for one cannot imagine another in the role.

As with all of the director’s features, from a technical standpoint A Very Long Engagement is a marvel. Working with production designer Aline Bonetto, cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel and costume designer Madeline Fontaine for the second time in as many pictures, nothing here doesn’t feel fully formed and completely realized. Most notable, the two major landscapes the film inhabits; the burned out shell of a trench ironically nicknamed Bingo Crépuscule and the idyllic country farm of Sylvain and Bénédicte. One is a bombed-out wasteland full of copious amounts of mud and blood, while the other is a picturesque landscape full of all the warmth and comforts of a fabled hearth and home. They’re perfect, everything coming together to craft a world that feels lived in and alive, whether that living are bees blindly pollinating the daffodils or French soldiers being shredded to pieces by German machine guns.

A special note must be made for Angelo Badalamenti’s (Mulholland Drive) somber, sometimes playful, and utterly beguiling score. It hits all the right notes, and in a picture as close to perfection as this that really is saying something.

I loved A Very Long Engagement. It took me across the ocean and to a time and place I’d barely read about in history class, mixing in a star-crossed love story even Ebeneezer Scrooge would love. Sure, the movie plays a bit long and there are a few plot strands that ultimately don’t come together in a completely satisfying way, but for the life of me I have hard time caring about any of that. This is a marvelous film, and one I hope to find engaging for a very long time.

Film Rating: êêêê  (out of 4)