AMELIE: picture perfect entertainment

It's not too often that I get a warm glow of enjoyment while watching a film these days, but the atmosphere on my couch grew positively tropical as AMELIE played out, and chances are you’ll experience exactly the same sensation.

This French film has restored my faith in cinema to produce films that are heartwarming without being mushily sentimental, funny without resorting to slapstick comedy, and entertaining without the need for car chases, sex scenes, explosions or punch ups.

Over-protected by her cold and distant parents, AMELIE has led a sheltered existence, working as a waitress in a café in the Montmatre district of Paris, and living in her own fantasy world.

Then she finds a 40 year old tin box containing a schoolboy’s long forgotten toys. She tracks down the now middle aged owner, and discovers her true vocation – solving other people’s problems and helping them to find love and happiness.

AMELIE’s world is peopled by ordinary folk with fascinating quirks. They’re all entirely believable, but also funny without realising it.There’s the hypochondriac tobacconist, the intolerant greengrocer, and the solitary young man who collects discarded pictures from passport photo booths, and it’s their lives that give this film so much of its charm.We become AMELIE's co-conspirator as she moves among them, invisibly sorting out their problems and punishing their transgressions.

Audrey Tautou is just fantastic in the title role, conveying a beguiling mix of innocence, craftiness, and steely determination to do the right thing, until it comes to her own love life.

Flora Guiet, who plays the 8 year old Amelie, is also superb, acting her white ankle socks off while making it look like the most natural thing in the world.

The other star of this film is Paris. Set mostly in 1997, but drenched in 50s style Technicolor, the city looks so picture-book beautiful, it’ll have you firing up your laptop as the final credits roll to book a long weekend there.

Words like charming, delightful, and life-affirming are so rarely used to describe films these days that they seem rather old fashioned, but they describe AMELIE perfectly.

If you’re looking for an extremely good time and a warm glow of deep satisfaction, spend a couple of hours in the company of this young lady. I guarantee you won’t regret it.