La Vie en Rose (2007)

Note: "La Vie en Rose" ended up winning Marion Cotillard the Oscar for Best Actress, as I correctly predicted that year. Here's what I said about the film. (As I was just starting to post reviews online, the earliest ones are short.)

First, the obvious: Marion Cotillard is deserving of the accolades coming her way. I would be STUNNED if she doesn't get an Oscar nomination. That said, I found parts of the film to be a bit too messy. Making a biopic a fresh enterprise is tough to do, and director Dahan's approach is to jumble time, flopping around from childhood to death like crazy. It's not so hard as to not be able to follow it, but it doesn't seem to make the film better, either. And for me, the real drawback of this concept is that it prevented me at times from seeing Edith Piaf as more than a shrew or a brat in arrested development. And that's not fair to Piaf. I enjoyed what I saw but for a movie that felt a bit long, I was left with many unanswered questions.

2.5 out of 4