By now we’ve all heard the hoopla about the French film The Artist and even know it won best picture at the Golden Globes. Yes, it was clever and fun. Yes, it was original (and in some ways very much not.) But at the end of the day it wasn’t my cup of tea. I like my films to have a little more meat to them.

First, if you don’t know by now, it’s a silent film in black and white. That is the “clever” part. Secondly, the story is set in that era, 1929, and brings with it a certain charm and whimsy, but I can’t necessarily say it’s a modern take. The story is pretty conventional and one we’ve seen before (Singin’ in the Rain, A Star is Born.) Boy, George Valentin (Jean Dujardin), is a married silent film star in his heyday. Girl, Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo), is new to Hollywood with dreams of breaking into the business. Boy meets girl, literally bumps into her in front of the press and she strikes a few poses with him. Both hoofers (tap dancers), she becomes an extra in his newest film. We can tell she is going to be a star as she has a certain bravado and sauciness that George finds captivating. After a hoofing duel with George on set, she gets fired, but he challenges the producer and saves her job. We learn at home his marriage is strained, and we’ve seen the sparks between him and the Peppy, but he does the right thing, making Peppy fall for him even more. Then it’s an hour of his career tanking and her star rising as Hollywood makes the transition from silent films to talkies. Spoiler alert: in a last ditch effort, he chances everything to write/direct/star in his own silent film but that ship has sailed. It premieres to empty houses, and that along with the stock market crash, causes George to lose everything. It’s a downward spiral for George as he refuses to transition to sound, and in one splendid moment, the film does take on sound.  First a glass as it sets on a table and then other ambient sounds, but George finds he has no voice. He runs outside, hearing everything, and the audience does too, but his screams bring forth nothing. He is silent. Here is where hopes for The Artist to become a true art film ran high. Oh the absurdity of it and the places this film could go breaking through that wall. But it went right back to the silent movie it was before that wonderful moment and the “twist” is girl saves boy, even though boy doesn’t want to be saved.

Now, you may think I’ve told you the entire movie, and I pretty much have, but the trailer for the movie does the same thing. Watching the trailer before another movie, my friend turned to me and said, “I don’t think I want to see that,” to which I replied, “But we just did.” 

I’m odd man out here. Critics have fallen for this film like bees to honey. I like a good gimmick in a film, but the movie has to live up to it and press beyond it and I don’t feel The Artistdoes. The performances were lovely, even though you begin to get a little weary of  Dujardin’s mugging about an hour into the film, but he brings to mind uncannily so many of the stars of the silent film era:  John Barrymore, Rudolf Valentino and William Powell. Bejo was delightful as a flapper channeling greats such as “It” Girl Clara Bow and Carole Lombard and bringing a certain innocence and heart rather than deviousness to her rising star. Certainly Dujardin and Beho were astute in telegraphing their rich emotions and dialogue, even in the moments where no subtitles were present.  But the real scene stealer was Uggie, the Scotch Terrier who played George’s sidekick in films and in life. The dog was adorable. John Goodman, James Cromwell, and Penelope Ann Miller added a nice touch of humor behind classic stereotypical roles: the Affable but Shrewd Producer, the Loyal Chauffeur, the Bored Hollywood Trophy Wife. 

French writer-director, Michel Hazanavicius, said at Cannes,  ”A silent film is a very special experience. It is not intellectual, it’s emotional. You take it in the way you take in music. There are times when language reduces communication, when you feel you are losing something when you start talking.”  The joy of this movie is that it’s silent and fun, but the well-used and predictable plot seemed to drain a little of that emotion he was seeking. Or perhaps it only works on the big screen where silent films were meant to be played. I, alas, watched a screener and felt if the movie were just a tad bit shorter and the story broke away a little from what it was, the sum could have truly been greater than the entertaining pieces.   

To watch the trailer: