Books, Movies and Random Thoughts

I enjoyed A Very Long Engagement much more than Amélie. I particularly liked the interplay between the uncle and the postman – in fact, I enjoyed pretty much everything that involved the uncle and aunt. I have no idea how true a representation it gave of life in the trenches, but it certainly felt very realistic. I found I had to work very hard to remember who was which among the six condemned soldiers. On the other hand, it is probably to the credit of the film that, for the most part, I did manage to do so. Normally I am very bad at keeping track of characters – particularly if they all look somewhat alike. The introduction of each character gave me a “hook” to remember him by (e.g. the different method by which each one was injured), although it was sometimes challenging when they were referred to by different names at different times.

For me, the scenes involving Tina didn’t fit very well with the rest of the film. She seemed far too ruthlessly efficient to exist in the same universe as the other characters.

I was a bit in two minds about the ending. [Warning: spoiler to follow] The implication seemed to be that he was never going to fully recover, and she would effectively have to become his mother, but that she was content with this. It was certainly more interesting than a conventional “happy ending”, but I wasn’t sure I was entirely comfortable with it. Then again, this was probably the point of it.