Mini Reviews (French) - The City of Lost Children, The Dinner Game, Tell No One

The City of Lost Children
This was recommended to me as someone's favorite movie ever. Now, I don't know if this unrealistically raised my expectations, but I didn't like it that much. Visually it was quite rich and interesting, much like a Del Toro movie, and perhaps even more fanciful. The problem I had with the movie was I didn't really empathize with any of the characters and there wasn't really a strong story to anchor around. The basic plot is there's a mad scientist who cannot dream, so he kidnaps children to steal their dreams. Unfortunately, the kids are all terrified and have only nightmares, which the mad scientist cannot use. One of the children who gets kidnapped is the adopted little brother of a circus freak named "One," who is played by Ron Perlman, who played Hellboy in Del Toro's movies. And One, with the help of this adorable pick-pocketing street urchin, aim to save the kid. There are a lot of weird characters, a lot of supposed deaths, but I didn't find the story to be that compelling. I was pretty bored. Another thing I found sorely lacking was the music - literally the lack of music.


The Dinner Game
A coworker of mine recommended this as a real great comedy. It was certainly funny at times, but overall it felt kind of sitcomish with a dash of Ben Stiller painful humor (think all the crap and misfortune he goes through in Meet the Parents). The premise is every week a group of guys have this dinner game of idiots. Each person is supposed to bring an idiot to the party and they get them to talk about themselves and just be nice to them. Afterwards, they pick the one they find most idiotic and invite him back to spend a night to ridicule him. That's somewhat of a setup - we never actually get to see a dinner game. The main character invites this guy who builds models out of matchsticks thinking he's the king of idiots. Unfortunately the main character injures his back and cannot make the dinner, all the while his wife threatens to run out on him. He's stick with the "idiot" who he enlists to help save his marriage. Well, hilarity ensues, if you enjoy watching the guy fall into misfortune after misfortune, because the idiot really is an idiot. I laughed out loud a few times, but mostly I just kept groaning at the stupidity of the characters. It had somewhat of a sitcom feel, partly due to the entire movie almost takes place in just the apartment. I could imagine the laugh track going off at each setback for the main character. Even the ending felt like the end of an episode of an old sitcom, where the last frame would freeze while the cheery theme music would play.


Tell No One
I'll leave off on a good note. I enjoyed this one a lot. It's a very good French thriller, with a protagonist named Alex who looks a lot like a younger Dustin Hoffman. The setup is that Alex and his wife Margot go skinny dipping in a lake. As Margot leaves the dock after a quarrel, she lets out a scream. Alex tries to swim to shore, but before he can make it out of the water, he gets knocked unconscious. Sadly, Margot has been killed. Or has she? Fast forward eight years and Alex receives a mysterious video in which Margot is seemingly still alive. Now, Alex must uncover the truth, well he doesn't have to, but he really really wants to. DUN DUN DUN. It was a good ride, where a lot of seemingly loose ends make its way back to fit nicely in the puzzle. I didn't quite feel the adrenaline rush as I did when I watched, say, Cellular, but the movie certainly kept me engaged. Beyond that I'm not going to say more about the plot because as with all good thrillers, it's better to not know anything more than you need to ahead of time. All you need to know is that I recommend it.