In short, this movie is everything I expected and more (incidentally, I apologise to the universe for not getting around to watching it sooner). Sure, the “more” is sometimes a little unnecessary – I really think the movie would work better at 90 minutes than 2 hours, and I can think of specific arrondissements that could be taken out (the Bob Hoskins one springs most immediately to mind, and the Alfonso Cuarón one is surprisingly forgettable too) ... then, you wouldn’t get the sense of completeness the movie has. For the very few times my attention slipped, though, there is an abundance of wonder that will take many more viewings to take in – just as the city itself requires more than one visit. The Tom Tykwer and Coen Brothers segments are really worth watching it for alone – but the biggest surprise is saved for the end, in the shockingly beautiful vignette by Alexander Payne, whose work has never really previously grabbed me as much as it has others. I’ll have a lot more to say about this movie in the future.

There’s not much left to say about this movie, and I’m surprised I’ve not reviewed it before. It’s visually among the most beautiful movies ever made. Audrey Tautou is like Hepburn brought back to life. The predominantly piano-based score by Yann Tiersen goes up there with Michael Nyman’s The Piano and Ennio Morricone’s Once Upon a Time in America on the “why the eff didn’t they even get nominated for an Oscar??”

All that said, I have to admit that for some reason the second half of the movie has disappointed me both this and the last time I saw it. I don’t know exactly why that is, possibly just a personal mood thing. Whatever the reason, I do tend to tune out over the last half hour, but it remains one of my all-time favourites because the startling glimmers of beauty – like Amélie guiding the blind man through the streets of Paris, her disruption of the mean old grocer’s day, her goldfish gazing up at her from the stream, the simply wonderful opening sequence of her as a young girl – are so frequent and mesmerizing, it’s impossible not to fall in love again every time. I’m gonna be harsh here and give it 4 stars but on a better day and for most people with a heart it’d be an easy 5.

Nothing particularly earth-shattering here, but for Kate Hudson it’s a big improvement over How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. It’s entirely stylish, Sex and the City only the city here is Paris and it’s not particularly funny. On the DVD case, Cosmopolitan is quoted as calling it “A Stylish must see Movie,” which says everything right there… must see, if you read Cosmopolitan with any passion. For me, there wasn’t enough of Paris on screen, but the last half hour was a lot more interesting than expected. Naomi Watts and Kate Hudson are really great as sisters – I don’t think the original cast, Winona Ryder and Natalie Portman, would’ve pulled it off as well.