Die Fee

I save the word 'brilliant' for a very few films; The Fairy is one. It is also mad, charming, funny, odd and the hippest comedy film in a generation. The Fairy is a spirited, zany concoction about lovable misfits--one with askew magical power, and the team of Fiona Gordon, Dominique Abel & Bruno Romy is the most original and bright comedy team since Monty Python! Fiona Gordon is an unglamorous fairy; Dominique Abel the worn-down recipient of her beneficence; Bruno Romy is the third member of this writing-directing-acting triumvirate, although Romy tends more to the directing end than as an actor.How did IMDb compute a rating of 6.2 for a film that every one of the IMDb reviewers loved? -- Frank Cullen founder: American Vaudeville Museum; author of "Vaudeville, Old & New: an Encyclopedia of Variety Performers in America" (Routledge Press).

French-language comedy abounds with the sort of film that makes perfect sense while you're watching it, but cannot be recounted to anyone who hasn't seen it without realising that...um...it's totally mad. "La Fée" is one of these. Part of its success is the fact that while the situations are farcical in the extreme, the actors carry them out totally deadpan, in the style of Buster Keaton. It's "normal" in their world, so you accept it as normal. Once you can accept the basic premise (sad little night clerk encounters a fairy who offers him three wishes), you are drawn into their version of reality, and no matter how mad it gets you just keep going, wondering where it will all end up. The actors are excellent, sending up silent films, musical comedies and rom-coms in the most ludicrous way without telegraphing (as so many American and English actors would), "Okay, get ready to laugh, funny bit coming up!" No, they just do what they do, and you find yourself giggling with astonishment. The hospital system comes in for its share of sendups (from the "smoking area" to the staff-of-one who manages to keep everything under control...to a point), the national obsession with rugby, etc. You do have to be aware or many of the more obscure bits of "business" will be lost. I think Keaton and Lloyd would have enjoyed this film very much. If it had a weakness, it was in the non-end; the director simply stopped filming when he was done, without attempting to tie it all up in a nice, bland little package.

"La Fée" reminded me strongly of "L'Iceberg". When I checked IMDb I realised it was made by the same people.

Once again the performing/writing and directing team of Abel, Gordon, and Romy deliver a sweet, gentle, charming comedy, that while having dialogue, is most akin to the silent comedy classics.

As with their earlier films "L'iceberg" and "Rumba", the film is a hit and miss affair - but with many more hits than misses. A long string of silly sight gags, dances, absurd and surreal moments with a slim thread of a plot tying them together; A sad-sack hotel manager falls for a woman who may be an actual fairy. Or just a crazy person. Or maybe both.

Along their way they encounter a host of mostly very funny characters, like the nearly blind-owner of their favorite café, who is always right at the edge of spilling everything. (One of those jokes that could fail badly, or get old quickly if it wasn't pulled off with such deft precision, and big heartedness.)

There are a few inspired, laugh out loud comedy bits, many others that are sweetly enjoyable, and a few that just fall flat.

But while this may be a bit inconsistent, how lovely to see a comedy that aspires to Chaplin and Keaton and not American Pie 5.

Although this film contains one of the best images I have ever seen in a film ( the tug of war contest over our lovers embracing) the humour was cartoonish tom-foolery. The audience quickly grew tired at being told when to laugh; all that was missing was a drum roll and symbol crash.The audience was left cringing in pro- longed,embarrassed silence. It seemed every bit- actor wanted the camera's attention for as long as possible adding to the squirm in the seat factor. Our lovers were more like elongated, gangly ,naive siblings. Pointless sub-plots add to the surreal feel of the film. There were lots of nods to the silent era ( our heroes are mime artists, so not fully surprising) but there was no mastery of subtlety- unlike Le Havre. Sweet but full of eye-rollingly excruciating moments.

One of those movies you get or you don't. I don't.

It's charming for a while. But it was hard for me to care about the characters -- there's just not enough to them to make much difference. Some of the scenes are amusing on their own, but others were not much.

So after an hour or so, there doesn't seem to be much point in continuing to watch. If I was in a theater, I'd have made it to the end, but on home rental -- no.