SPOILERS AHEAD! Some movies seem underwhelming on viewing but improve on reflection after the event. Others seem good at the time but become less impressive on subsequent reflection. This movie falls into the latter category, This is a schizophrenic movie which presumably faithfully duplicates what must be a schizophrenic book on which it is based. Theme One involves an 11 year old girl who vows to kill herself on her 12th birthday, surely one of those quirky, impossible themes they must teach in "French Movies 101". You know of course that she never will kill herself and this quirky little subject is really nothing more than a time filler, a stocking stuffer really, albeit a cute enough one. The girl is brilliantly acted, her character does a good line in cynical dialog and (of course) she is part of a dysfunctional family complete with a neurotic mother who provides the traditional comic relief. The filmmakers (and the original author) know it's impossible to resist unbearably cute, bespectacled, wise-cracking, precocious children pretending to be adults, but at the end of the day this is all a bit of fluff that means nothing. Maybe it means something in the book but you could leave her out of the movie entirely and not alter the main crux of movie one iota. The only problem with that scenario is you would end up with an extremely short movie, so I guess that was not an option...
So on to Theme Two. This is the real guts/heart of the movie and involves the janitor of the building in which the little girl lives, a middle aged woman who is leading a kind of double life. In the sanctity of her own flat she devours classic literature such as Anna Karenina and watches seminal Japanese movies by Ozu et al. To the rest of the world she presents herself as a frumpy, non-entity of a doormat fit only for her job of putting out the rubbish bins and attending non-complainingly to the unreasonable requests of her tenants. Then one day, bam, her world is turned on its head. A new tenant arrives in the building, immediately sees through her facade and recognizes her for the literate, artistically inclined person she really is, and begins to draw her out back into the real world and re-establish her self-image and self-worth. More than that, it seems likely that the initial intellectual attraction is moving inexorably towards romantic attraction. Naturally there is the usual well-trodden drama of the frumpy woman trying to morph into something more physically attractive, a move that seems to backfire as this process seems to make her even more unattractive, to my eyes at least. Much as I would like to say that all men are attracted to women for their intellect (and vice versa) sadly real life is not that kind. The man in question is physically attractive, articulate, kind, sophisticated and rich, and could have his pick of any women in the World, and to have him fall romantically for the janitor seems to be stretching credibility just a tad. You have to wonder if this is the reason the male character is Japanese, rather than any other nationality in the World. Perhaps his nationality is supposed to suggest some sort of zen understanding and mythical goodness that us mere mortals of other nationalities cannot aspire to, and that this somehow makes this unlikely scenario more believable. But that is speculation.
Without giving away too much this "too good to be true" relationship comes to a sad end, which for reasons that are not entirely clear persuades the girl not to kill herself after all, surprise, surprise, just to tie the two themes together. So...I am of two minds. I actually enjoyed this movie a lot while I was watching it, and I think you should have that pleasure too. If I had rated this as the credits rolled I would have given it 8.5 to 9. After some deliberation that score has dropped to 6. So, I'm going to average it out to a score of 7. For all I have said it is a good movie, just don't be surprised if you have trouble remembering it a week later.
So on to Theme Two. This is the real guts/heart of the movie and involves the janitor of the building in which the little girl lives, a middle aged woman who is leading a kind of double life. In the sanctity of her own flat she devours classic literature such as Anna Karenina and watches seminal Japanese movies by Ozu et al. To the rest of the world she presents herself as a frumpy, non-entity of a doormat fit only for her job of putting out the rubbish bins and attending non-complainingly to the unreasonable requests of her tenants. Then one day, bam, her world is turned on its head. A new tenant arrives in the building, immediately sees through her facade and recognizes her for the literate, artistically inclined person she really is, and begins to draw her out back into the real world and re-establish her self-image and self-worth. More than that, it seems likely that the initial intellectual attraction is moving inexorably towards romantic attraction. Naturally there is the usual well-trodden drama of the frumpy woman trying to morph into something more physically attractive, a move that seems to backfire as this process seems to make her even more unattractive, to my eyes at least. Much as I would like to say that all men are attracted to women for their intellect (and vice versa) sadly real life is not that kind. The man in question is physically attractive, articulate, kind, sophisticated and rich, and could have his pick of any women in the World, and to have him fall romantically for the janitor seems to be stretching credibility just a tad. You have to wonder if this is the reason the male character is Japanese, rather than any other nationality in the World. Perhaps his nationality is supposed to suggest some sort of zen understanding and mythical goodness that us mere mortals of other nationalities cannot aspire to, and that this somehow makes this unlikely scenario more believable. But that is speculation.
Without giving away too much this "too good to be true" relationship comes to a sad end, which for reasons that are not entirely clear persuades the girl not to kill herself after all, surprise, surprise, just to tie the two themes together. So...I am of two minds. I actually enjoyed this movie a lot while I was watching it, and I think you should have that pleasure too. If I had rated this as the credits rolled I would have given it 8.5 to 9. After some deliberation that score has dropped to 6. So, I'm going to average it out to a score of 7. For all I have said it is a good movie, just don't be surprised if you have trouble remembering it a week later.