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.

What? I haven’t reviewed this one yet?!?

This is one of my all-time favourite movies. This viewing was the original theatrical cut, and though I prefer the longer “bootleg” / “Untitled” cut, there’s barely any difference except the length. It’s just, if you love the movie, you just don’t want it to end: that’s why I think the longer cut is better. This movie is pure love to me.

I’m guessing I first watched this movie in 2003 (it certainly wasn’t last year but I remember thinking at the time ‘why has it taken me so long to see this?’) and the biggest reason for my love of it is how much it changed my love of music. In a way, the movie acted for me the same way Zooey Deschanel as William Miller’s sister does for him when he is a young boy – dropping a handful of hints about what rocks, hints that lead to a whole journey of personal and musical discovery. “One day, you’ll be cool,” she tells the 11-year-old in flat-on, talk to the camera close-up before she leaves, one of my favourite shots of this or any movie. If only all of us could have such a big sister. When she reappears at the end, the relief is so palpable. Zooey Deschanel must be onscreen for less than 10 minutes of the movie but she makes a hell of an impression.

I love how real the movie comes across. Of course it’s all partly Cameron Crowe’s autobiography, but even the little things like character names etc come across as very authentic. After first viewing the movie I was entirely convinced that there really was a band called Stillwater back in the Seventies (there actually was, apparently, but they weren’t anything like the Stillwater in the movie).

But most of all, my love of this movie is down to two things – the blending of Nancy Wilson’s score and Kate Hudson’s performance as Penny Lane. When both are working together, like when Penny first meets Russell Hammond, and when she asks William “What … kind of beer?”, and when she’s dancing alone in a post-concert empty hall; this movie touches me like nothing else but love itself. I want to be with these people, I want to sit on that bus and sing “Tiny Dancer”, I want Frances McDormand to be my overconcerned mom, Zooey Deschanel to be my offbeat big sis, I want to be around these people who say things like, “If you ever get lonely, just go the record store and visit your friends.” This movie is as much a part of my life as any movie will ever be, I love it.

I guess I’m watching this now to try and get the foul taste of Moodysson’s latest Hole in My Heart out of my mind. This one has a happy ending, I recall, it will therefore make me happy. Weird thing is, coming back to it after Hole and the similarly shattering Lilya 4-Ever, in addition to the very disturbing short movie, “Talk,” included as an extra on this new Region 2 DVD (annoyingly only available in the Lukas Moodysson box set), I couldn’t help focusing in on the more negative aspects of this movie now. Gee, thanks, Lukas.

It’s still a lot more fun to watch, though. For better or worse, it probably paints the most realistic portrait of teenagers ever seen in the movies: at once beautiful, pathetic, and inconsequential. The soundtrack is excellent and the two leads are perfect for each other.

You can’t go wrong with Disney, and this is one of my favourites. I love how this one requires such suspension of disbelief – really an astonishing amount when you step back from it and take a look. Like, normally, you’re asked to believe in a magic flying carpet or a fairy godmother – simple, magical stuff. Here it’s mostly based in reality, and you’re being asked almost (for most people) to subscribe to a whole new set of beliefs. It’s said outright at one point by Grandmother Willow, “there are spirits, all around,” and that Pocahontas’ mother lives in the wind, etc. I’m 99% certain there are probably comments and messages on the IMDb with dummies saying how dumb it is that a bunch of Lucky Charms fly through the air and suddenly a Native American and an Englishman can have a civilised conversation, lol. But that’s not how this movie works. In order to fully enjoy it, it’s almost like you’re forced to look past what’s actually happening on the screen and instead figure out what it means. Or you can just laugh at Flit and Meeko, I guess, your choice.

Even the smallest thing says so much – for example, the way Meeko bites John Smith’s gold coin when he’s trying to demonstrate to Pocahontas what the explorers are looking for and tossing it aside, it’s just a whole sudden simple perspective on the situation, like an innocent child suddenly saying the most random thing and making so much sense. Meeko wants a biscuit, that’s what’s important to him, he doesn’t want some stupid shiny thing.

What I found pretty weird on this viewing is how much the film still resonates with real world events – and probably moreso than it did in 1995. We could really kinda use a movie like this these days, where did ya go, Disney? I couldn’t help watching this time and seeing a lot of Dubya in the character of Radcliffe, always looking for a fight, always looking for what is simply not there, and the reprise of “Savages” is such a perfect representation of the blur that exists between hatred and pure insanity.

I was glad I could find the old theatrical version on the new DVD for this viewing: it’s awkwardly hidden in the “set-up” menu where you’d normally find commentaries etc – this actually makes a lot of sense, but in the past Disney have usually let you choose the alternate versions after you select the “Play” option from the main menu. I really don’t like how they’ve added “If I Never Knew You” to the movie. I don’t mind the first instance, since, like “Human Again” in Beauty and the Beast, it stands alone, and it’s certainly interesting to hear Mel Gibson sing. But it’s the reprise that bugs me. It interrupts one of my all-time favourite movie music cues, “Farewell,” which begins when you first see John Smith by the water waiting to be shipped home and runs right up till the end credits. It doesn’t need that reprise halfway through and for me, the reprise ruins the whole sequence. The theatrical cut is certainly the best.

Wow it’s a big week for rewatching things

There are just so many levels to this movie, every scene has a hidden depth. There’s the surface story of a mentally retarded man trying to keep his daughter, but then there’s the prosecution lawyer who sees this situation every day, who knows the stats, that it rarely works out, he’s seen kids ruined by such situations. We’re always with Sean Penn’s character because he and Dakota Fanning just seem so destined to be together, but I love that the film makers throw every obstacle in their way, it’s never quite 100% sentimentalised. Of course the Beatles soundtrack doesn’t hurt. Every character is so fleshed out though. Pfiefffer has a whole career and and son to contend with – the way he looks at his mother when she’s hugging Dakota (Dakota leading the hug) is so revealing. Diane Wiest and her backstory that comes to light in the courtroom; even nearly completely insignificant characters like that played by Mary Steenburgen and another woman have secrets brought out in the courtroom and their reactions are immediately tear-inducing. This movie doesn’t shy away from the pain that spiders out from these kinds of stories. But, beautifully, it also never shies from the happiness and joy that triggers and sustains them. I mean, the pain in this movie is shattering; the joy, though, is overpowering. I forgot about Laura Dern’s character. The first time I saw this movie, I really and truly thought she was finally going to be the one bad character in the movie, since there are no other truly “bad” characters in it (like I said, even the prosecution has reasons). When she brings Lucy back to Sam, it made me die a thousand times over. You suddenly realise how strong Sam and Lucy’s bond is. You just get to know them for seconds, and even if there’s not an ounce of love in your soul, by god they will put love there and make you surrender. It’s overwhelming.

I’ve said everything else in the old review. I was really struck by the depths of this movie this time though. And by the random, unlikely moments that nevertheless come through that complexity. All these subplots, and there’s still time for a pure character/comedy scene of Sam recording his answer machine message, stuff like that. To me that’s the sign of perfection, really, when you can tell your whole story, keep the emotions, keep it interesting, and still throw in those little moments.

1st March 2005:

I’ve had the soundtrack to this movie for quite a long time but I never really knew what it was about.

This movie makes me almost feel bad for loving last year’s Jersey Girl so much: if you thought Ben Affleck had it bad in that movie, spare a thought for Sean Penn here.

I Am Sam is a true weepy that thrives on the strength of its characters and a real moral dilemma – though you’re always on the side of Penn, there are a number of times where you can’t help but feel that no, actually, maybe he shouldn’t be looking after a kid.

Dakota Fanning plays the daughter. This is only the second movie of hers I’ve seen and she’s already among my favourite actresses of today, if not my favourite. She’s not just another Jodie Foster, she’s got something completely different in her eyes; the commentary here offers a little insight into her skill, she apparently grew up around a handicapped aunt, so I guess she brought a lot of that to the movie … I’ll look forward to every single one of her movies from now on (I even have the unfortunate Cat in the Hat in my Blockbuster queue :-P)

And back to the soundtrack – a must for Beatles fans, a great selection of covers that actually link beautifully to the scenes of the film (the intro to “Across the Universe”, for example – a beautiful image in itself of Penn and his disabled friends escorting Fanning across a zebra crossing à la Abbey Road, all carrying red balloons – is an instant favourite shot of mine), including a number of my favourite artists, Aimee Mann, Michael Penn (Sean’s brother) and Rufus Wainwright. Even beyond the soundtrack, Beatles references abound (Sam uses profound metaphors of Beatles history when he can’t come up with an answer of his own; and there’s a great line towards the end, ”’P.S. I Love You’, like the song…”; and Fanning’s character, Lucy Diamond Dawson, is named after… well, guess…)

It’s a great DVD, too: good, informative director/writer commentary, 40 minute documentary, and deleted scenes.

And once again I’m reminded that a Michelle Pfeiffer movie marathon is long overdue. She makes me feel gooey inside This movie came out in the same year as Riding in Cars with Boys and when Michelle Pfeiffer sort of has a breakdown towards the end of the movie, she reminded me a lot of Drew Barrymore in Riding... it’s such a sudden, frank, slice of truth and reality.

A Pfeiffer marathon would at least give me an excuse to watch this one all over again, which I already feel the urge to, listening to the director’s commentary and looking at the movie again as I write this. When a movie’s so good it makes you want the person doing the commentary to shut up, no matter how interesting they’re being, you know you’ve found something special. It’s a future favourite of mine, I’m sure.

An all-time favourite that never lets me down, yet I don’t know what to say about it. It’s the ultimate romance-gone-too-far-gone-sour movie. I don’t think Kate Winslet has ever been better; I almost want to say the same for director Peter Jackson; and Melanie Lynskey is great in everything she does. The combo of Peter Dasent’s score and Mario Lanza songs make for one of the best soundtracks, and the visual effects, while a little on the low budget side, are somehow perfect for the young girls’ fantasy world. I don’t think beautiful and disturbing have ever been so close.

It’s really really hard for me to review my passionate favourites. I sat down to watch this today not knowing if I’d be in the mood for it, but within minutes – even before Christina Ricci appeared onscreen – I was back 10 years ago.

It’s so hard to believe how old this movie is – the effects still stand up completely. For me they’re among the very best in movie history. The ghosts aren’t marvels of 3-dimensional modelling, but on this viewing I realised for the first time what exactly is so good about the visual effects on this movie – it’s all in the lighting. In every scene, the ghosts blend in so perfectly. There’s simply no doubting that they are in the scene with the humans, they’re as much characters as anyone else. Ironically, the only time this illusion slips is when the ghosts are in a frame of their own, the editor cutting back and forth to a human jerking their head around “following” the ghosts’ motions.

My favourite thing about this movie is the score by James Horner. You can say what you like about its obviously being ripped off from Danny Elfman’s Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands scores (it’s almost too clear that these were probably used as a temp score at times), but somehow, for me at least, it ultimately stands as a work on its own. The piano theme alone, Casper’s Lullaby, which is one of the few parts you really can’t attribute to Elfman, is worth an Oscar. When coupled with the image of a lonely young girl passing her hand through that of a lonely ghost, it makes for me one of the most beautiful moments I’ve ever seen on film.

I’m always surprised by the sheer number of sad scenes in this movie. I always think I’m going to come to it and find Carrigan and Dibs (Eric Idle and Cathy Moriarty – I have to admit, even they are brilliant in flashes as pure comic relief, you couldn’t ask for better actors in a movie like this) all over the place. But from the image of a haunted Bill Pullmann on a tabloid news show, trying to contact his dead wife, to Ricci pulling a photo of her mother out of a box while unpacking (that piano theme making itself heard for the first time), to the aforementioned breakfast “touching” scene, to the scene that really made me break down this time – when Casper asks Kat (Ricci) “Can I keep you?” and kisses her on the cheek, and she mistakes his natural coldness as the window being open – it’s just an incredibly sad movie, right down to Casper basically losing his dream in the end. It always really kind of shocks me how deep the movie goes. I’m convinced it’ll always be close to my heart, this one.

I’m still a little steamed that this movie is mentioned nowhere in the Oscar nominations – I mean even a sound nod would sort of appease me. Yes it was released early in the year… but as I started this second viewing, I said to the person who I was watching it with, who asked if it was nominated for any Oscars, “No, but it should be.” Part of me wasn’t entirely sure of that statement, just a memory of my first dropped-jaw experience; but now I’ve seen it again, I still see how amazing a movie it is.

Harry Gregson-Williams’ score, Christian Wagner’s editing, the visual trickery, the superb creative use of subtitles (I’m certain we’ll be seeing more of this in films to come), and this is before I begin to even think about the performances – Denzel Washington, Christopher Walken, Mark Anthony, Radha Mitchell, and of course, Dakota Fanning. This role will likely go down for her like Natalie Portman’s in Leon and Kirsten Dunst in Interview with the Vampire – not necessarily because it will forever be her best, but because it’s the first that made so many people go “Wow,” and some people, myself included, will likely never enjoy any of her future performances more. You can’t watch her in the first half of this movie without smiling, and that’s so crucial for what happens in the second half. Her absence for nearly all of the second half is painfully notable. It’s almost like she has more impact offscreen than on.

Anyway, I still love the movie. Just a little more than before. It’s a grisly story, true, as I said last time, it highlights the most awful aspects of human life and these kind of movies are not good for me to watch often, ‘cos I just get too depressed. But there’s so much to behold, I can’t help but want to come back and look closer. One of my all-time favourites for sure.

Old Review (7th October 2004):

It’s a pity this movie wasn’t released a little later in the year. I realise it’s slight folly to hope for a movie released in April to win Academy Awards, but this is easily one of the few “above and beyond” actual great movies (in my opinion, at least) of 2004 (in fact, only Eternal Sunshine fully comes into that category, any other of my ‘04 faves are personal ones), and I wouldn’t be entirely shocked to see a sweep of nominations in an ideal world. I’m amazed I hadn’t heard or read a lot about the movie. I was under the impression that it was merely average, since there seemed to be no real passionate opinions either positive or negative.

There are elements of Taxi Driver and 8MM here, as well as a style that reminded me of Traffic and Black Hawk Down. I mention Black Hawk Down because I felt this movie opened my eyes to the reality of kidnapping in the same uncomfortable way as Black Hawk Down opened my eyes to the reality of war (re: why people go to fight). My thoughts were up and down throughout this movie. It’s fairly sensational in execution, but somehow it never over-sensationalises the subject matter. I’d give an example but the only example I can think of would be a spoiler.

The one Oscar nomination I would love to see this movie receive is (and I realise it won’t happen but I’m just saying) for Dakota Fanning’s superb performance, honestly the greatest child performance I have ever seen. I’d heard of Fanning but never seen her in a movie. She’s absolutely incredible from start to finish.

Denzel Washington, too, is great. That might sound like a given, but I’ve never really liked a Washington performance as much as I did this one. I’ve always admired his acting, but on a personal level, he’s usually annoyed me. Here, he really got me.

It’ll be a difficult movie to find a time to watch again. It’s a movie that to me really expresses how miserable the world is, and it’s never a good time for me to watch a movie like that more than once. But it’s definitely one I’ll look for on DVD if it has enough extra features. Colour me blown away.