Susan Granger’s review of “A Very Long Engagement” (Warner Bros. Independent)
It’s back into the trenches of World War I (1914-1918) for this bittersweet epic tale of a stubborn young French woman who simply will not accept the fact that her fiancŽ is dead. A polio survivor, Mathilde (Audrey Tatou) is engaged to marry her childhood sweetheart Manech (Gaspard Ulliel) when he is sent off to the battlefront. When the war is over and Manech doesn’t return, she refuses to believe he died and embarks on a mission to prove that he is still alive. To do so, Matilde must investigate how Manech allegedly perished in combat – and this bold quest involves not only hiring a private detective (the late Ticky Holgado) but also tenaciously tracking down those who were in a muddy trench called Bingo Crepuscule during one particular skirmish. Her dogged perseverance reaps rewards as, in one of many memorable encounters, she receives a revelatory letter from a Polish war widow (Jodie Foster). With an expressive face that’s familiar from “Amelie,” Audrey Tautou’s plucky determination is charming and, perhaps, director Jean-Pierre Jeunet from that same 2001 Oscar-nominated film intended this as a melancholy companion piece. Based on Sebastien Japrisot’s best-selling novel, it’s filled with Bruno Delbonnel’s stark battle flashbacks. The cinemagraphic carnage is particularly gruesome in contrast to the lush bucolic visuals that incorporate Jeunet’s preference for sepia tints. And Angelo Badalamenti’s original score is haunting. In French with English subtitles, on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “A Very Long Engagement” is a sweeping, sentimental, suspenseful 8. It’s just a shame that, due to arcane Academy rules, this picture is not eligible for a Best Foreign Film Oscar since it was not submitted as France’s official entry.
