Indie films offer fresh perspective

'Amelie'

Amelie lives in Montmartre, France. She likes breaking crème brullee with teaspoons and watching people in movie theatre. Amelie is looking for love.

From the beginning of the film, of the same name, Amelie (Audrey Tautou) enraptures audiences with her pixie-like presence and delightful charm. One day her life changes forever when she discovers a box full of childhood memories hidden in her bathroom wall. She resolves to return it to its owner and, if he is pleased, she will devote her life to helping others find happiness. There is only one problem: no one is there to help Amelie find her own happiness.

"Amelie" is a French film, but do not be dissuaded from seeing it for this reason alone. The humor is absolutely delightful, and by the end of the film one forgets that the characters are speaking a foreign language, so universal is their story.

Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who also wrote and directed "Delicatessen," pays attention to every detail, resulting in a film which is witty and serious at the same time.

The cast is filled with strange folk, a conglomeration of eccentric "types" of people that everyone knows. There is a hypochondriac, an obsessed and repressed father, a globe-trotting gnome, a jealous ex-lover and a porn shop clerk who collects discarded photos from beneath picture booths.

Never has there been a film like this: some have been better, many worse, but few successfully combine good directing and acting and a great script and characters with an interesting plot quite like "Amelie" manages to do.

'The Man Who Wasn't There'

"The Man Who Wasn't There" is, on one level, Joel and Ethan Coen's celebration of all things noir and, on another level, an intimate portrait of a lonely American existence.

The Coen brothers' films have always centered on characters living apart from the real world. This time around, our hero is Ed Crane (Billy Bob Thornton), a barber detached from his wife (Frances McDormand), whom he suspects is sleeping with her department store boss, Big Dave (James Gandolfini).

In an effort to start a chain of laundromats, Crane plans to blackmail Big Dave for $10,000. A smart move, until it backfires in true Coen style: slowly at first and then at a maddening pace, all of which Crane participates in with ambivalence. Murder, cheating, stealing, lying — if it's insidious, then it's all part of Crane's downfall.

The barber that the Coen brothers and Thornton create is a lonely man who seems all too calm in his silent, quiet world. Alas, the Coens are all too adept at shattering such wistful thoughts. In the Coen universe, what's done is done. The only way to go is down.

The three lead characters form a triumvirate of pitch-perfect acting, in addition to Tony Shalhoub ("Wings") in a scene-stealing role as a wily defense attorney. It is this acting, combined with the writing and direction of the two magnificent brothers that make "The Man Who Wasn't There" the best Coen caper yet and one of the most eerily affecting films of the year.