You don’t go to movies like this one expecting innovation, insight or incisive social commentary. You hope for a couple of fun hours of escapist froth that is not too corny, not too juvenile and provides some laughs. Surely that’s not setting the bar too high, you’d think…but how often these romcoms stumble and fall in a miserable heap of sentiment and cliche, leaving you bored at best, or more often, irritated or scowling with contempt.
At least this one’s not about 30-somethings. That’s when the nausea-warning needle really starts to gyrate in the red zone. Nope, this is Gen Y going for the giggles.
This film is a cocktail of disparate influences. It’s a Brit-Australian production, the first feature movie directed by short film and music video director – and muso – Andrew Lancaster, based on the Connecticut childhood of Australian-based American dancer-and-choreographer-turned-screenwriter Brian Carbee, but filmed in the Sydney suburbs of West Pymble and St Ives, with one American star (Geena Davis) and an Aussie cast of mostly unknown actors feigning American accents! [pause for breath]
I should state from the outset that I am not a Jean-Pierre Jeunet fan (even his website annoys me). I yawned through Delicatessen while the rest of the theatre hooted and guffawed in delight. The City of Lost Children did nothing for me. And I could not understand the fuss that was made of Amelie. I found it cutsie-poo rather than endearing, and frankly, a bit silly. I suspect it would have been savaged as lightweight romcom pap if it had come out of Hollywood.