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Sunday, March 25, 2012
MOVIE REVIEW
Delicacy (La Délicatesse)
Stating Things Plainly, Amidst Isolation In France
Audrey Tautou as Nathalie in David Foenkinos and Stéphane Foenkinos' romantic
comedy-drama "Delicacy".
Cohen Media Group
by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
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Sunday, March 25,
2012
"Delicacy", now playing in select theaters in the U.S. and Canada, is a
French romantic comedy-drama directed by the Brothers Foenkinos (David and
Stéphane). Nathalie (Audrey Tautou) is an industrious lady who has lost
her husband François (Pio Marmaï) and tries to pick up the pieces on her own
terms amidst unwelcome attention at work from her harassing boss (Bruno
Todeschini).
Nathalie is alone, isolated. She is smothered and suffocated by the
goodwill of her parents and in-laws. She needs to escape, and impulsively
seizes the day, to the surprise of a co-worker Markus (François Damiens), a
Swede she manages. Their unlikely romance leads to bliss, complications
and a buried past "Delicacy" arrives at suddenly and awkwardly, as if to mirror
the tricky, unpredictable paths romance and life often take.
Sprinkled with some of the magical atmosphere of "Amélie", a character that the
impish and effervescent Ms. Tautou embodied so perfectly, the Foenkinos Brothers
playfully mock romantic comedies and the transformation of love-crossed beings
touched by a cosmos that flashes comets of blinding light on them. Some of
this dreamy, fantasy white-light glory is strange for a film that feels for much
of the first hour as if it is trying to settle and find itself. There's a
spiritual artifice "Delicacy" imposes in several ways, including its shifting
(and distracting) narrative voice, an anything but delicate device.
Rocked by her husband's sudden death Nathalie buries herself in her work just as
many men often do. Is her self-imposed borne of her independence or is it
because she's the sum of what she's lost in her life? Does Nathalie feel
vulnerable in letting another into her life? The film tries to answer that
question, although a key line spoken late on by a male character, threatens to
make Nathalie, a resolute presence, into a simpering movie damsel in distress
who typically falls into the trap of dropping everything in her steady,
independent life to be with a man, without thinking things through.
Instead, "Delicacy" takes a nifty turn toward something more revelatory,
truthful and faithful to its protagonist.
"Delicacy", about saying what you mean and doing as you say, captures the
difficulty of doing both. The film asks not whether honesty is the best
policy but whether expressing yourself in every environment and context leads to
more happiness and freedom or further isolation and loneliness.
Each major character in "Delicacy" is trapped in an obstacle course of tangled
self-expression. Nathalie's boss Charles, a married man, wants to punish
an employee for thwarting his own extramarital desires but he's stifled.
Markus, a self-conscious, modest and sensitive man from a different class
background than Natalie, utilizes avoidance to steer clear of getting hurt
feelings. Nathalie, a bold, refreshing woman, is lonely but free,
revitalized and a few years removed from her husband's death. She gets a
new lease on life, much to chagrin of her friend Sophie (Joséphine de Meaux) who
is now a mother and lives vicariously (if not jealously) through Nathalie's new
adventures.
"Delicacy" becomes a sharper-focused and better film in its second half,
shedding its jovial armor and revealing itself as a drama, taking an involved
turn, opening up from its local scope into a deeper, more personal story about
roots and history. I liked this second half of the film a lot better than
much of the first, and had David Foenkinos, who wrote the script based on his
novel La Délicatesse, maintained a smooth rhythm evocative of the
film's second half I would have enjoyed it even more. The film's
disruptions are its biggest casualty. Otherwise, "Delicacy", a
bitter-sweet exercise, more or less merited the tragicomic edge guiding its
later stages. In initially going the pageant like, light bulb-flashing
circuitous route to get to its hearty meat and potatoes, "Delicacy" is a film
whose isolated parts are greater than its whole.
Nonetheless, Mr. Damiens is a winning presence, the film's best asset as the
unsteady and principled Markus. He's funny, charismatic and smart in how
he restrains himself as a figure who wants love and acts sometimes as if he
doesn't deserve it. Ms. Tautou, a beautiful and measured performer here,
does well playing a multi-faceted character in touch with herself and her deep
convictions, and she is admirable and charming. The screenplay has
dimension and a good grasp of the push and pull of these two very different
people and charts families of people who want the best for Nathalie, whether
those families are work colleagues, family members or friends.
With sweetness, affection and comedy, "Delicacy" charts the joys and sorrows of
life and love. The film is like a flower that blooms, flourishes and fades
before finding renewed life touched by fresh water. "Delicacy" sparkles,
sometimes fizzles but resonates in the end.
With: Mélanie Bernier, Audrey Fleurot, Monique Chaumette, Marc Citti, Alexandre
Pavloff, Vittoria Scognamiglio, Olivier Cruveiller, Ariane Ascaride, Christophe
Malavoy.
"Delicacy" is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association Of America
for some strong
language. The film is in the French language with English subtitles. The film's running time is one hour and
48 minutes.
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