This Season's Best Movie

Rating: 10/10 (30 December 2011)

If you like something that's different in more ways than one for the holidays, where the movie has real plot and character development, and not standard cartoonish violence as in many of this season's holiday movies, then run, don't walk, to see "The Artist." The movie is headed by two international stars who should become well-known to American audiences - French actor Jean Dujardin as the hero George Valentin, and Argentinian actress Berenice Bejo as the ingenue Peppy Miller, along with the familiar faces of John Goodman as his usual cheerful self in the role of the egomaniacal studio head Al Zimmer, Penelope Ann Miller as Valentin's troubled wife, Doris, and James Cromwell as Valentin's faithful butler.
The message of "The Artist" is all about changes in our culture. Also, this movie, while maintaining its originality, pays homage to two of the greatest Hollywood movies ever made, "Singin' in the Rain," where Debbie Reynold's regular voice fit best for talkies as Jean Hagen's itty-bitty voice didn't, and fell for her co-star, Gene Kelly, and the storyline of "A Star is Born," where the heroine's celebrity rises and the hero's celebrity falls. For those who really think that "they don't make movies like the used to," then you see everything in "The Artist." It is much more than an all black and white silent movie. It is a tribute that makes the viewer think, feel, and yet enjoy its magical movie-making. It is funny, sometimes disturbing, intellectual, and the viewer leaves with good feeling and emotion. And that's what a great movie is all about.
The storyline goes that George Valentin is a hot 1920s silent movie hero who meets dancer Peppy Miller. He puts the beauty mark on her and then she is a star ingenue. However, Al Zimmer realistically announces to George that the movies are forever changing to sound, which is true in our culture, and George feels disheartened over his silent film celebrity status. Even more disheartening when Peppy's sound movie is a fit, George's last silent movie is a flop, and George's actress wife, Doris, deserts him. George moves into a small apartment with Clifton, and his Jack Russell Terrier, and still more desolation ensues. George drinks uncontrollably, attempts suicide twice, and the only people to save him are his smart and loyal dog who knows more danger signals than humans, and Peppy, who loves George unconditionally. The predictable but exhilarating ending is a real gem that not only makes the viewer feeling good, but thinking what will come next for years to come. And finally, George is back in form in the next status, which Peppy adapted to right away.
The last silent movie tribute was, well, Mel Brooks' "Silent Movie" back in 1976. Sorry, but audiences these days seem to be more interested in a thoughtful tribute than a mindless but still always hilarious and timeless parody by our spoofmeister Brooks. Thirty-five years later, we get the real treat for what the silents are all about. Call it artsy and all black and white, but "The Artist" is a thought-provoker that I would like to see nominated for Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor Dujardin, and Best Actress Bejo. I'm not the best at handicapping Oscars, but it looks so far that this movie may win for all its artistic merits.