Yes, it really is a silent film

Rating: 7/10 (4 March 2012)

The Artist (2011) was written and directed by Michel Hazanavicius.
It's awkward to give a lukewarm review to a film that's received multiple Oscars, and carries a impressive IMDb rating of 8.4. Nevertheless, I was disappointed by this movie.
It was a stroke of genius to conceive of making a silent film in the 21st Century. All credit to director Hazanavicius for that. However, the manner in which the concept was carried out left me somewhat bored and disappointed.
The Artist touches on a situation that we've seen before--the trajectories of a young woman and an older man cross as she is going up and he is going down. (Think of "A Star is Born.") So, that's a somewhat tired concept. Hiding it behind the "great silent star, but couldn't make the transition to talkies" doesn't cover up the fact that the plot is an old one.
Also, the director has chosen to make the film not just silent, but in the less-than-subtle style of many silent films. It's purposely obvious and melodramatic. I respect the thinking behind the decision, but I don't enjoy watching obvious, melodramatic movies--silent or with spoken dialog.
Finally, the film is 10 or 15 minutes too long in my opinion. Some judicious editing might have improved it.
The two stars, Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo are very good. Ms. Bejo is very beautiful by 21st Century standards, but manages to also look beautiful in a way that would have worked 80 years earlier. It's difficult to comment on the acting, because the actors are in a new movie where they have to act like actors in an old movie. That's hard to manage, and hard to evaluate.
All in all, this is a movie worth seeing because it's unique. Just don't go to it expecting more than the film can provide. We saw it on a large screen, in the restored Star Theatre in Dansville, NY. The Star was built in 1921, and did, indeed screen silent movies. The theater ambiance helped me enjoy the film. However, The Artist will work well in a cineplex or on the small screen.
Addendum in 2013: Figure skating fans already know that The Artist figured prominently in the 2013 World Figure Skating Championship held in March in London, Ontario. Denis Ten, a skater who represents Kazakhstan, won the silver medal when he used the music from this film in both his short and long programs. The brilliant choreographer Lori Nichol created a situation where the short program represented the beginning of the movie, and the long program represented the middle and the end. You would think that someone before Nichol would have thought to create a continual story line between the short and long programs, but no one had ever done this before.
Of course, in the final analysis, it was Ten's superb skating that brought him the silver medal. (I didn't much like the movie, but the use of the music for figure skating really worked!) Red-125