An Homage to a Great Singer; but not enough for a great movie

Rating: 5/10 (8 May 2007)

Marion was wonderful portraying a clearly unbalanced and self destructive artist. And how she lip-sync'd that perfectly was truly amazing. It really brought Edith's music to life.
However, the issues I had with the movie were threefold: 1. Just about everybody in her life, as portrayed by the movie, seem to have her best interest at heart; everyone from the small town prostitutes to the managers and servants who nursed her at the end. Which begs the question: if everyone in Edith Piaf's life showed her such kindness, why did she end up such a mess? Marcel Cerdan, the love of her life, was portrayed as a heart throb with only love and patience in his soul. My recollection (and this was passed down to me by my parents) was that theirs was a tumultuous relationship. If that's the case, why not give it the honest portrayal it deserved? In the constellation of her life, there had to be devils, the ones that abused, manipulated and violated her trust, driving her to the edge of insanity and addiction. That would have been drama.
2. I realized early on in the movie that the director had to have made the assumption that anyone watching was well aware on who these people were. Consequently, characters would drop in and out like so many distant relatives who had no need for introduction.
3. I like the time shifts one finds in such classics like "Citizen Kane." It fleshes out the story so that by the end we have traveled the path of life with the heroine. But we have to remain anchored in the present so that we always have a feel as to where we are in the story line. In this movie, there may have been a bit too much movement away from the core, and not necessarily coming back to the same point. By the end, I couldn't tell if she was in Paris, New York, on her death bed or getting ready for her last concert.
It is a movie worth seeing. For anyone who knows little about Piaf, it will give them a feel for this french icon, second only to the Eiffel Tower and Napoleon. But she lived a tragic life; this movie only makes it seem sad.