French Finesse

Rating: 8/10 (13 November 2007)

Olivier Dahan gets it right with mood and great storytelling while Marion Cotillard creates an impertinent, perturbed, passionate character with her riveting performance. The story has a lot of rags-to-riches aspects to it, but goes beyond the luck, perseverance, talent to carry a propelling story arc held together by great music choices and sound editing. Although 140 minutes long, no scene feels really forced or out of place. In fact after the journey, you almost wish it was slightly longer so you can a get even more of a glimpse of that fascinating character, her life and how it evolved externally and internally from "La Mome Piaf" to Edith Piaf, international superstar.
The most powerful pivotal scene is dealt with a deft hand by our dear director who successful confuses the audience as much as Edith feels and that let the missing pieces coalesce into a melodramatic monumental meltdown of majestic, almost magic, moment of clarity with matching magnitude of a myriad of emotions. Much merit is deserved for that idea and execution.
As for the ending, it is very becoming. It is predictable, but predictable in the scene that the whole movie built up to it and the the audience cannot wait to experience it as it just. Edith loves her music, loves her audience and we also love her in our own way and for our own reasons. Great piece of film and congratulations to everyone who brought this well-thought, well-paced and well-acted biopic to life. A fine final product.