Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain

Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet 

Rating 10/10

I am sure a LOT of people will blame me for being partial towards this particular movie because I watch it, every year, without fail, it is the first movie I recommend to one and all and if you know me even remotely, you'd be able to quote a thousand things I have probably said in praise of this movie! Some of the common allegations that are thrown at me when I'm completely Amélie-fied, are: I'm a woman, hence obviously under the influence of oxytocin, with the sappy, dewy-eyed notions of romance. Plus, thanks to my completely awesome-otic college life and the friends I made there, I have an undying love for the French language, art, cinema and anything and everything remotely French. Yes, all these allegations will be shamelessly thrown at me, and I will do nothing to convince anyone! I have a review to write, for Heaven's sake!

So, cutting the disclaimer short, allow me to introduce you to Amélie Poulain-a simple, sweet young girl, whose life changes drastically(at least in her own opinion) when she hears the news of Princess Diana's death. This sends young Amélie on a crusade to make the lives of those around her a little happier.  It begins with finding a long lost stranger, Dominique Brotodeau (or was is Brodoteau?) and includes teaching the local grocer a lesson for being mean, delivering a 'love letter' from an unfaithful and dead husband to his wife, and becoming friends with the oh-so-brittle M. Dufayel, who has dedicated his life to imitating Renoir's Le Déjeuner des Canotiers right.  Oh, and there is also a fabulous plot on how to set up a hypochondriac and an obsessive ex-lover of another friend-not to mention how a garden gnome can make your father putting on his travelling shoes! All these quirky, crazy things which finally leads Amélie to a lost album with torn passport photographs, up the steps of Sacré-Cœur, into a Ghost-Dungeon and to a sex shop and finally to Nino Quincampoix, the boy she has been crossing paths with since she was a little girl but hasn't come face to face with yet.

Romantic comedy? Not quite! The best way to describe the movie would be a number of stories wrapped into one girl's life, whose vivid imagination takes you down the streets of Paris and introduces you to people so quintessentially French, you simply want to bring them home.

Viewer's discretion is advised for some strong nudity scenes, which, although, they barely last for 10 seconds, might disturb the kids. Worth a watch? Do you seriously need to ask me that?