War, wizardry and love

At times, Jeunet may rely too heavily on the effects that, in the wake of "Saving Private Ryan," have made war the newest frontier of splatter movies. He should have avoided the temptation of a big, showy sequence about the destruction of a field hospital. But Jeunet has given the moments of carnage just the right degree of absurdity and an impeccable timing. At times, the bullets zing to their targets like the punch line of a sick joke. The battle scenes have the texture of something vivid and richly imagined. The cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel, though he relies far too much on close-ups, composes brilliantly in the CinemaScope screen and displays an admirably varied palette. The romanticism of Mathilde's quest to find her beloved Manech doesn't sugarcoat the war scenes. Her stubbornness plays as a humane reaction to war, the instinct of someone clinging to the very notion of being human that war (justified or not) threatens to destroy.

I'm not ready to join the Audrey Tautou fan club, but she acts here instead of mugging. Mathilde requires a combination of fragility and resolve, and while there are French actors I might have preferred in the role -- Vanessa Paradis or perhaps Laurence Côte -- the part does tap into the obsessive quality that's always been spookily apparent in Tautou. And the specifics of the role don't allow her to flash that impish waif's grin into the camera. Tautou is more concerned with getting Mathilde's determination than in being ingratiating. The character grows in stature as the movie goes on.

Jeunet is not so wrapped up in the visuals that he neglects the actors. The secondary characters who are so winning in the book are abundant enough to allow the director to scatter good supporting roles like plums to his amazing cast. Among those people who turn up are Tchéky Karyo as a French officer; Denis Lavant, with his simian mug, as one of the condemned men (he gets the best exit in the movie); Ticky Holgado as the dapper elder detective who faithfully aids Nathalie, Elina Löwensohn as a German woman who lost her brother in the war; Dominique Pinon, whose friendly, gnomic presence has graced all of Jeunet's films, as Mathilde's uncle; Chantal Neuwirth, an image of bounteous, welcoming hospitality, as her aunt; and -- spectacularly -- Marion Cotillard as the tale's dark avenging Corsican angel. Her appearances are so startling that they very nearly derail the film. Most of these people are more familiar to European audiences than American ones. But you don't have to have seen an actor before to recognize who has presence, and the roles are miniature demonstrations of star power. "A Very Long Engagement" also features a surprise appearance from an American actress whose name I won't reveal but who turns in the best performance she's given in some time.

"A Very Long Engagement" is the wartime romance that the stiff, straining "English Patient" and "Cold Mountain" claimed to be. It helps that, unlike those pictures, "A Very Long Engagement" is based on a good novel instead of a lousy one. It's also the only one of the three that presents a coherent view of the war against which it's set, and the only one entirely comfortable with admitting how old-fashioned it is.

It may seem strange to speak of a film so reliant on contemporary technology as old-fashioned, to say nothing of one where the plot, unlike the absolute clarity of classic narrative moviemaking, is often so complicated enough you feel you're a step behind. What earns the description "old-fashioned" is the movie's comfort with big, sweeping emotion (supported throughout by that increasing rarity, a symphonic score, beautifully composed by Angelo Badalamenti), the ease with which Jeunet takes on the making of a period movie, and the way all his gimcrackery is put in the service of entertaining his audience. The mixture of a trickster director and classic movie conventions works better than you'd expect it to. Not because Jeunet has dressed up something that was tired to begin with, but because he brings those conventions emotional conviction. In "A Very Long Engagement" he's a graceful combination of soloist and conductor.

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