A Summary and Review of Amelie

If you’re reading this, chances are that you already feel OK about subtitles. The cultural translation is well done in the 2001 film Amélie by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Although leading lady Audrey Tautou had been in films before Amélie, this is the film that put her on the map. Amélie is the story of an adorable but eccentric waitress with a unique outlook on life. She and the colorful characters that surround her negotiate life in Paris with heartwarming flair. These characters include a nervous co-worker and her stalker (a frequent customer at the café), a vegetable salesman and his apprentice, an abandoned wife/landlady, and many more.

One day Amélie happens upon a boy’s treasure box hidden in the wall of her apartment. She begins a quest to find its owner, and the joy that results when he sees his collection inspires Amélie to devote herself to helping others through gestures that are simultaneously simple and elaborate. When the glass-boned artist who lives in her building (played with genius and grace by Serge Merlin) notices what Amélie is doing, he confronts her and challenges her to pay as much attention to her own life as she pays to the lives of the people in her orbit. She was never very successful in love, but Amélie does meet a kindred spirit in the film, a guy named Nino who has strange hobbies of his own.

Amélie is a fantastic movie for almost any mood. It is a feel-good testament to taking pleasure in life’s little details, doing for others, and forging your own path in life.