La Vie En Rose (2007)


While I definitely celebrated the demise of the biopic thing that happened in 2007 and 2008 I don't really dislike the genre. It just got really really old after a while. For me, a little of this lingering bad taste in my mouth colored the way I saw this film a bit. 

I really enjoyed it though. The acting was, of course, absolutely phenomenal, the cinematography was gorgeous and the story was interesting enough. I liked the idea of flashing back and forth between where she came from and what she had become. 

The film, in general though, just tried to accomplish too much. It tried to tackle the whole broad scope of her life and in the process a lot was lost in translation. There were too many characters, the story got a bit muddled, and things that would seem important never made an appearance (like World War II for instance). It seems to me that if someone had an interesting enough life to make a film about it, a filmmaker probably could not fit the scope of their whole life in one film. A movie that did the whole biopic thing exceptionally was Capote. It did well, in part, because the filmmakers found one of the most interesting, if not the most interesting piece of Truman Capote's life and focused on that. Because of this, it turned out to be a tight film with a narrow focus that managed to get across a message or two. This was really hat La Vie En Rose lacked. 

So, in the end, I enjoyed the film. It definitely managed to capture my attention for two plus hours (which is really not easy) but without its exceptional performances, I don't feel that I would be a all enamored with it. 

8/10

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