Mood Indigo

2013 romantic comedy

Rating: 16/20

Plot: Boy meets girl, but as a lot of these movie romances go, a flower starts growing in girl's lungs and threatens her life. He fights to find a cure.

Michel Gondry's been hit or miss, but he's never dull and when he hits (Eternal Sunshine), the guy hits it very hard. This reminds me a lot of The Science of Sleep, a movie I was a little lukewarm on. The humor in this had me grinning like an idiot. There's probably nothing I enjoy more than superfluous stop-motion animation, and here, Gondry animates food and gives dancers ridiculously long legs, both for absolutely no reason. I couldn't stop giggling at those legs actually. This is unfiltered and unfettered whimsy, enough to sicken people with weaker stomachs, and you have to appreciate a movie that doesn't need an excuse to work in every single ridiculous concept the makers come up with. The love story's almost too goofy or surreal to be touching, but both Romain Duris and Audrey Tautou are both so likable that it's impossible not to take them seriously. Gondry's seemingly working hard to out-quirk every quirky love story out there; still, there's something effortless about the whole thing. It's breezy, but it eventually startles with a change in tone, something that isn't going to sit right with a lot of people. And that's a spoiler.

It's possible that this is my new favorite movie. And I should probably watch The Science of Sleep again sometime.