Craig and I saw this last night...after seeing The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo the day before, we needed something a big more lighthearted! I'm a big silent film fan and I had high hopes for this one.
George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) is a hot shot silent film star, whose arrogance and resistance to change find him struggling when sound pictures start becoming popular. Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo) is an up-and-comer who works her way to stardom. And Uggie plays Valentin's dog, who is the cutest dog ever.
The film borrows heavily from its inspirations (Valentin is sooo Don Lockwood at the start of the movie), even directly lifting scores from other films (Vertigo? Whaaa?) but it doesn't keep it from being an enjoyable experience. This isn't high art by any means, but Bejo is gorgeous, it's visually interesting, it has a lightness to it even in its dark moments, and it's fun! I'm assuming many of the people seeing this are silent film fans to some extent, but I'd like to think that some people seeing the film maybe aren't so familiar with the genre and will seek out some original silent films on Netflix or elsewhere. It's true that we won't see the likes of the original greats again, but I welcome any attempt to bring the magic back!
Happy viewing!
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