Movie Review July 2003
By Ellen Fox
Special to the Chicago Tribune
2 stars (out of 4)
Are there any fawning words left to describe Audrey Tautou, the breakout star of the 2001 French romantic comedy "Amelie"? Charming, pixie, gamine, naive, urchin and porcelain doll were descriptions that came to mind after her performance in that magical, mischievous film. In her latest film, a quest for romantic and religious fulfillment called "God Is Great, I'm Not," she stretches her range to encompass one more personality trait: annoying.
Tautou plays Michele, a spiritually adrift 20-year-old model who meets a new boyfriend, the bearded, 32-year-old veterinarian Francois (Edouard Baer), and quickly steamrolls her way into adopting his religion, Judaism.
With a growing mania that ranges from stealthily hammering a mezuzah onto his door to refusing phone calls on the Sabbath, she fashions herself as a highly observant Jewish wife-in-training, all the while failing to observe the plain fact that Francois is a non-practicing Jew.
In fact, not only is he irreligious, but his conception of Judaism is limited to feelings of explosive paranoia and an interest in Holocaust history; one reason offered for this is that he is the son of two Holocaust survivors. That Michele persists throughout most of the film in not really "getting" this, that she sees only Judaism's customs while he sees only its angst, is one of the reasons why it's all so hard to watch.
To be sure, the film is easy to look at, Paris, no longer the sweet, storybook milieu of "Amelie" but the real, earthy city of graffiti and cinema lines and public smooching, is perhaps even more intoxicating now that it's been wiped clean of that film's sugary glaze. And Tautou, with her head of tousled doll's hair and a wardrobe of funky clothes, is vibrant.
But her million-dollar pouts, her big, blinking eyes and her little lies aren't endearingly childlike anymore, not in this more realistic tale about making a relationship work and finding God. Now they're just childish, and it's alienating. You could watch a heroine barrel into a messy romance all day, provided that she's a lot less dopey than this, but few of Michele's foibles make us sympathize with her.
We don't root for Michele.
What also makes the film hard to watch is that, while it is clearly not about French-Jewish relations, at times it doesn't seem even that comfortable with being about a French-Jewish relationship. In conversion class, the teacher asks, "What is Zionism?" Michele's hand shoots straight up, but the camera cuts immediately to the next scene. I was curious to hear what her answer was going to be; perhaps, like the film's brief references to abortion, suicide and the Holocaust, it wasn't cute enough to dwell on.
Only one witty scene - about the wisdom of going to see "Shoah," an eight-hour Holocaust documentary, on a date - makes you want to shriek, "Yes! More!" at the screen. It's a moment where good intentions bump against human nature, and it reminded me that I was watching a romantic comedy. Up until then, after having silently shrieked "No! Don't do that!" at Michele for so long, I could have sworn I was watching a horror movie.
"God Is Great, I'm Not"
Directed by Pascale Bailly; written by Bailly, Alain Tasma; photographed by Antoine Roch; edited by Lise Beaulieu, Jean-Pierre Viguie; production designed by Denis Mercier; music by Stephane Malca; produced by Alain Sarde, Georges Benayoun. In French, with English subtitles. An Empire Pictures release; opens Friday, July 4. Running time: 1:35. No MPAA rating.
Michele - Audrey Tautou
Francois - Edouard Baer
Valerie - Julie Depardieu
Evelyn - Catherine Jacob
Jean - Philippe Laudenbach