"I must sing..., I have no choice."

Rating: 7/10 (15 October 2017)

I imagine if you were or are a fan of Edith Piaf, this movie will fulfill a desire to watch what seemed like a narrow perspective on the life of the famous French singer. Personally, I found the film to be excruciatingly drawn out without much in the way of an uplifting message or something more positive to say about a woman who rose above her troubled origins. That's not to say that Marion Cotillard's performance wasn't good, quite contrary, it was simply amazing, and since I'm not that familiar with her body of work, there was no distracting from her celebrity. She quite literally became the character of Edith Piaf in a way that few actresses might be able to accomplish. Her portrayal of the older Piaf in her late forties was quite astonishing and you wouldn't recognize the person under the makeup. But the story itself seemed quite dismal to me, what with the alcohol and drugs contributing to a sadly shortened career. One would expect that a singer who's voice was the 'soul of Paris' would have done so much more to insure a personal legacy.