Rent A Very Long Engagement (2004)

French finesse - A Very Long Engagement review by JD

I don't know what it is about good French films but this had the same feeling as Jean De Florette and Amelie. Audrey Tautou was the reason I requested this film and she is superb. As an added and entirely unexpected surprise for me was an appearance from Jodie Foster. For me the two best actresses in modern cinema.

Set against this was trench warfare which was poignantly pointless and dehumanising and seen from a very personal perspective. The plot was a bit convoluted with several lines of investigation and the male actors were not quite as fantastically gifted as their female colleagues but I would generally recommend this film.

Beautifully moving story - A Very Long Engagement review by CP Customer

Audrey Tautou and Marion Cotillard are excellent in this film with a surprise appearance by Jodie Foster.

Never mind that it is subtitled this a superbly crafted and moving film.

Any description of the story would spoil your enjoyment of watching the film, but suffice to say that it based around the horrors of the first World war and lost loved ones.

The title gives a hint to the final outcome.

As ever the French make excellent films and always manage to find a slightly different angle to view any situation.

If you do not usually watch subtitled films, put your prejudice aside for once and watch this film.

Not to forget WWI and smile - A Very Long Engagement review by CP Customer

This showed the harrowing and perhaps honest face of the 1914-18 war. It manged to balance the serious and horrifying images of the trenches with a light magical touch and a page turning plot. All achieved with exceptional cinamatography and production values... watch it!

Tried hard, didn't quite succeed - A Very Long Engagement review by BE

A harrowing depiction of first world war battlefields, a quest to find a feared dead fiancé and some incongrous scenes of a whimsical nature, failed to make this movie gel. It would have been better if the main theme had been stuck to instead of additional storylines being attached to some of the characters.

Superb Period Romance - A Very Long Engagement review by GI

A truly remarkable and quite beautiful film that is a very touching period romance with an enthralling mystery story for its main plot and with some very gritty and realistic war scenes thrown in for good measure. Set mainly in 1920 and young country girl Mathilde (Audrey Tautou) refuses to accept her fiancé, Manech (Gaspard Ulliel) was killed in 1917 on the western front. She begins an investigation to find out what happened to him even though he is officially listed as one of the dead. She discovers he was one of five men condemned for self inflicted wounds and cast out into no mans land where they were all apparently killed. She finds that the stories of the other four are all wrapped up in the fate of Manech. This really is a delight of a film. The balmy, almost sepia, look of the 1920s and the unbelievably realistic recreation of Paris at that time is really very impressive and this is juxtaposed with the grey, dank scenes set in the trenches in 1917, some of the closest recreations of the the First World War that cinema has produced. The characters are all wonderful and very memorable and the film boasts Jodie Foster in a cameo. Ultimately this has a very clever and intricate storyline constructed like a mystery thriller with murder, deceit and twists that are very unexpected. This is a first rate film and will appeal to everyone as it has almost something for all film tastes. If you've never seen this and are looking for something truly exceptional, look no further.

Excellent blend of romance and battlefield action - highly recommended - A Very Long Engagement review by RP

It's in French, with subtitles. But don't let that put you off - this is a superb film, blending romance, battlefield action, and search for a missing fiancé.

Mathilde, played by the always excellent Audrey Tatou, searches for the truth about her fiancé Manech, sentenced to death - along with four others - for self inflicted wounds during WW1. The death sentence is carried out by forcing the men into No Man's Land, where they will be killed by enemy fire. After the war, Mathilde refuses to believe that Manech is dead and searches for him, both herself and using a private investigator. During the search the stories of each of the condemned men is explored, giving each of them a fair amount of characterisation.

Told with a voice-over dialogue, the film intertwines several threads of story to give a satisfying complex tale with a happy - if somewhat ambiguous - ending.

I enjoyed this film. The acting, the dialogue and the photography are very good and the war scenes as grim - if not grimmer - than the opening of 'Saving Private Ryan'. Look out for Jodie Foster displaying a remarkably good French accent in a small part.

Excellent - 5/5 stars - highly recommended.

A really lovely film - A Very Long Engagement review by CP Customer

A lovely way to spend an evening. A captivating film which both my husband and I thoroughly enjoyed.