Perhaps the most charming movie of all time, Amélie is certainly one of the top 10. The title character (the bashful and impish Audrey Tautou) is a single waitress who decides to help other lonely people fix their lives. Her widowed father yearns to travel but won't, so to inspire the old man she sends his garden gnome on a tour of the world; with whispered gossip, she brings together two cranky regulars at her café; she reverses the doorknobs and reprograms the speed dial of a grocer who's mean to his assistant. Gradually she realizes her own life needs fixing, and a chance meeting leads to her most elaborate stratagem of all. This is a deeply wonderful movie, an illuminating mix of magic and pragmatism. Fans of the director's previous films (Delicatessen, The City of Lost Children) will not be disappointed; newcomers will be delighted. --Bret Fetzer

Amelie is looking for love and perhaps for the meaning of life in general. We see her grow up in an original and slightly dysfunctional family. Now a waitress in central paris she interacts curiously with her neighbors and customers as well as a mysterious picture collector and one of his photo subjects. Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 01/11/2005 Starring: Audrey Tatou Run time: 122 minutes Rating: R

This is an instant classic. Directed with a retro and modern feelers entwined throughout every scene, Amelie pulls you in and again further still. This movie seems like a children's tale and would make a great film for such with proper edits. It finishes with a nice moral rub for shy or difficult to understand people embedded in a warm, gooey bed of personal satisfaction. "Nothing ventured, nothing gained."

I watched Amelie on DVD several years ago for fun, and really enjoyed it. Then a few weeks ago I finally ordered my own DVD and watched it again. It's great to watch even a second time thru, probably because it's hard to catch everything the first time. And that's because many of the good parts of Amelie are very brief, especially in the first 20 minutes or so when Amelie's childhood & teenhood are shown in a pretty fast pace. Just like how the official summary of the movie describes Amelie, she is "painfully shy" but also playful & enthusiastic with her eccentric hobbies, like skipping stones (as well as "stealing" nice skipping stones throughout the movie XD), and helping people out.

As for the content of the movie, the story has some elements of intrigue & mystery, and with the shy-yet-mischievous Amelie character wanting to do things in her indirect ways, a lot of light-hearted action takes place while these little "mysteries" are solved. Overall it starts off as a comedy, with bits of adult content (brief showings of nude breasts & non-explicit sex scenes), a few fun fantasy elements like inanimate photos & animal-objects talking to her, and gradually turns into a light, adorable romantic comedy in the 2nd half. She and her love interest are based on a curious crush on each other, with their main goal being to simply find out more of each other, without meeting, yet. XD (As opposed to typical romantic comedies where the main characters hook up, fight, get back together, have dramas, then FINALLY get back together.)

Another thing to note about this movie is the presentation. The style is very artistically composed, with colors being selected & saturated to get an almost toy-like world in some scenes. The various characters have distinct personalities, from an obnoxiously bossy vendor to a quiet, wise painter.

Overall, people who are tired of typical romantic comedies will like how eccentric this movie is. Shy/quiet people will relate to Amelie's interests & personality, as this is a very "character-driven" movie.

i love this movie so much. finally a happy-go-lucky movie with charm that'll make you laugh and feel all warm and fuzzy inside! :)

In my humble opinion this would have been a precious movie except for a few things, like...the frontal nudity and shots of people making out. Then there is the idea that people can live happily ever after if they fall into bed after barely knowing one another. Stuff like that. Doesn't work for me. If you can believe it, you will enjoy this movie. As for me I'm reeeeeally glad I watched a cheap used copy before I gave a DVD as a gift to a teenage relative - since I had gotten the impression elsewhere that this was a safe bet.

I borrowed this movie from a friend, not knowing what to expect. After popping it in and having no expectations I was literally jumping out of my seat to watch it again. It's a beautiful story of a girl who wants to make things right and find happiness in the process. The movie is well made and the imagery is breath-taking. This is definitely on top of my list for favorite foreign films next to Pan's Labyrinth!