![]() I like the film just fine, and it has plenty of things behind it that are not simply commendable, but near-laudable, yet for every considerable strength, there is a considerable shortcoming, and while you can't take enjoyability completely away from this film, the final product is ultimately dragged away from potential and into relative underwhelmingness. ![]() No matter how much the film tries to unique its structure up, much too often to a fault, it cannot obscure its being too formulaic as a biopic, having about as much potential for compellingness as any other given rise-and-fall tale of this type, but ultimately finding its effectiveness undercut by predictability that would be easier to miss if it wasn't for plenty other issues in storytelling. Time needs to be taken to flesh out a character study this layered, and while the film soaks up its depths just enough to keep you from falling out, it grows more and more frantic in its thinning out exposition as it goes along, until, after a while, the final product devolves into repeititious aimlessness, and that alone drives it into underwhelmingness, yet the issues don't quite end there. Ostensibly aiming to obscure conventionalism as a biopic (Yeah, such an aim doesn't quite hit, but more on that later), this film structures the unraveling of a layered life study in a non-linear format that gives you a glimpse into one segment in Piaf's life, then focuses on a separate glimpse of a separate segment, and can work, but doesn't quite gel in this film, which gets too carried away with its format, growing rather convoluted at times, maybe even all-out uneven, when not failing to spend as much time as it should meditating on any one tossed-in segment. ![]() Manipulative dramatic notes in this film aren't too manipulative, but they stand as recurring blows to your investment, which takes enough damage from, of all things, a questionable story structure. This drama is, at times, effective, and the ambition behind dramatic depth is palpable enough to sustain a reasonable degree of your investment, yet it is just that ambition that all too often taints this film with dramatic shortcomings, particularly histrionics, which rarey, if ever bear down too heavily, but thin out genuineness in emotional resonance to the point of even leaving the faithfulness to the more theatrical, yet nonetheless factual beats in Édith Piaf's inspiring story to come off as overblown. Sure, the film is decent and all, and Marion Cotillard is at least awesome, but it's not the harded hitting biopic, partially because it can't entirely escape Hollywood drama, even though it was made a long ways off from Hollyweird. ![]() Hey, Édith Piaf was not all that pretty of a woman, but she sure was talented, and sure makes for a decent film, which isn't to say that this film is as enjoyable as it could have been, because it falls a bit short, which is shocking because, seriously, who better to direct this deeply dramatic character study than Olivier Dahan, the artist behind such moving classics-to-be as the Luc Besson-written "Crimson Rivers II: Angels of the Apocalypse"? Hey, the French can have silly films that are more than just borderline unwatchable Cannes Film Festival entry silly, too, but they can still turn in some good dramas, with this film, well, not really being one of them. So yeah, if you're looking for a film that tells you about how good of an actress Cotillard is, then you need not look anything further than this film, but don't exactly go in expecting her to look about as good as certain other traditional pop women of the extra classic era. I mean, she doesn't look too bad, or at least not when she's a younger, cuter Édith Piaf but they made her look even skinnier, put some serious fatigue around her eyes and really rolled back her hairline, and yet, they managed to cover up that someone little, somewhat strangely placed mole on the forehead that is so much more pronounced in this film, so I guess the makeup artists could have done a more intense job of dressing the lovely Mademoiselle Cotillard for the sake of authenticity. "Des yeux qui font baisser, les miens Un rire qui se perd sur sa bouche voila, le portrait sans retouche de l'homme auquel, j'appartiens!" Nope, I'm pretty sure that the translation of that song's lyrics in no way makes me sound gay, but just in case, Marion Cotillard sho' is purtty.
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