As with the great directors, their films are to be compared to, well... their own films!. The mind of jean Pierre Jeunet has created worlds that that range from fairy tale (Amelie), post- apocalyptic (Delicatessin), science fiction (City of Lost Children) and put new twists on the war torn romance (A Very Long Engagement). These spaces of story telling are therefore protected from otherworldly logic, but encased in bits and pieces of sweet snippets, humorous entanglement and just plain oddness. We've come to expect this from our collector of such things as expressed on the big screen for our delight.
His effort here is a bit in conflict with these endeavors. The reality of homelessness isn't that funny. The pain of a mother losing her daughters in a fun house is not something to mention in passing and the creation of "non-stop shenanigans" pieced together to make a point about the harms of war mongers seems to put the style in contrast with the substance. The visuals are entertaining and the vignettes almost all work but in the end the projected romance between our "Basil" and the annoying contortionist fails to illuminate the heart as the past romances in the other films mentioned above.
I still enjoyed the film and the concluding "exposure" of our evil doers, but the Seven Dwarfs, as usually fun, kooky and endearing as past Jeunet inhabitants, could have skipped the circus act romance to wrap up the bow around our Snow White.
His effort here is a bit in conflict with these endeavors. The reality of homelessness isn't that funny. The pain of a mother losing her daughters in a fun house is not something to mention in passing and the creation of "non-stop shenanigans" pieced together to make a point about the harms of war mongers seems to put the style in contrast with the substance. The visuals are entertaining and the vignettes almost all work but in the end the projected romance between our "Basil" and the annoying contortionist fails to illuminate the heart as the past romances in the other films mentioned above.
I still enjoyed the film and the concluding "exposure" of our evil doers, but the Seven Dwarfs, as usually fun, kooky and endearing as past Jeunet inhabitants, could have skipped the circus act romance to wrap up the bow around our Snow White.