While I understand why some reviewers had a hard time with this film, the positive aspects of it far outweighed the negative for me.
The cartoonish feel of the film served it well, especially given Sylvie Testud's whimsical face & sensibilities (most delightfully on display in the scene with her ripping off the calendar page with flourish to the applause of the gathered employees!) Testud plays the part with a childlike sincerity which is on the whole pleasing and watchable, even in light of all the hard-to-watch moments and implausible events.
One simply cannot watch this in a strictly American mindset or it would turn into a farce, and not a very good one. The fact that the film is based on an autobiographical novel lent it more meaning & poignancy than if it were strictly fictional.
~NN
The cartoonish feel of the film served it well, especially given Sylvie Testud's whimsical face & sensibilities (most delightfully on display in the scene with her ripping off the calendar page with flourish to the applause of the gathered employees!) Testud plays the part with a childlike sincerity which is on the whole pleasing and watchable, even in light of all the hard-to-watch moments and implausible events.
One simply cannot watch this in a strictly American mindset or it would turn into a farce, and not a very good one. The fact that the film is based on an autobiographical novel lent it more meaning & poignancy than if it were strictly fictional.
~NN