| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| BaftaBaby |
Posted - 12/19/2010 : 18:11:03
Words like charm and innocence blink on and off throughout this film like random traffic lights. But they don't cast a lot of light.
It's not that there anything wrong with Chomet's follow-up to the surprising Belleville, except perhaps it's about 40 or 50 years past its sell-by date.
The script is by the late genius Jacques Tati and dedicated to his late daughter Sophie Tatischeff who died aged 55 of lung cancer in 2001. Word is Tati had planned the film as a live action piece, himself as a down-on-his-luck magician with Sophie in the role of the Scottish lass he meets in the highlands and with whom he forms a relationship.
See, back then such a concept was pretty well clear of innuendo, in the same way that Eric and Ernie sharing a bed never conjured up Brokeback Comedians.
As you'd expect from Chomet, the animation itself goes a long way to redressing the Pixar balance. As with Tati's live action films the dialog, though just about audible, is largely and intentionally unitelligible. The film's about what happens between the characters, not what they say. Actually, a bit of dialog might have helped.
Because that's where the iflm falls down flatter than 2D. Though we can surmise the magician's pain of dreams unfilled, we're never quite sure about the girl, not even how old she is, or come to that, whether she's just slow-witted or possessed of the kind of innocent trust not unusual in the transition from post-war retrenchment to 60's ebullience. Nor do we know why the magician - called Taticheff - accepts, albeit reluctantly, to slip on the cloak of quasi-parenthood, assuming complete care for her.
Various people who claim to know, suggest that Tati was plagued by guilt for abandoning his eldest daughter after splitting with her mother, and for neglecting his other kids because of work commitments. The script was meant to make amends.
And, though there's much to praise in Chomet's depiction of Scotland, especially Edinburgh in its small brave grandeur, taken on its own without benefit of explanation, the film leaves us a bit baffled.
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