Hellmant 'MOOD INDIGO': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five) French fantasy romance flick directed and co-written by Michel Gondry. It was also co-written and produced by Luc Bossi and based on the 1947 novel, 'Froth on the Daydream', by French writer Boris Vian. It tells the story of a rich inventor, living in a magically idealistic Paris, who falls for a woman he meets at a party. They quickly marry and then she becomes deathly ill, on their honeymoon, by a rare sickness. The film stars Romain Duris, Audrey Tautou, Glad Elmaleh, Aissa Maiga and Omar Sy (who recently appeared in such blockbusters as 'X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST' and 'THE INTOUCHABLES'). I loved the creativity and pure imagination of the film but couldn't get too involved in any of the characters or story.The story centers around Colin (Duris); a wealthy bachelor who invented the pianocktail (a cocktail making piano). He spends most of his time enjoying extravagant meals prepared for him by his servant, Nicolas (Sy), and chatting with his friend Chick (Elmaleh). When Chick tells Colin he's fallen for an American woman, named Alise (Maiga), Colin attends a friend's party in hopes of meeting a woman himself. Once at the party he meets Chloe (Tautou) and quickly falls for her. The two get married and everything seems perfect until Chloe becomes severely sick (due to a water lily growing in her lung).Visually the film is stunning and constantly interesting to look at. I love Michel Gondry and think he's a beautifully artistic director ('ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND' is one of my favorite movies). The actors in the film are all talented but their characters aren't very well developed; they're too cartoonish and don't seem like real people at all. That's my only problem with this movie. I absolutely love it's visual beauty but I just couldn't get into it's story. It would have been much better as a short film, or series of shorts, rather than a 2-hour and 11 minute feature.Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew1sXPb-oQQ

estebangonzalez10 "This feeling of solitude is unfair. I demand to fall in love too!"No one does surrealism better than the French, but unfortunately I'm not into surrealism and I usually have a hard time enjoying this genre in general. Mood Indigo is probably more surreal than any other film you've seen before, and despite the fantastic visuals and rich imagery used I had a hard time engaging with the characters and its lack of a strong narrative story. I was a huge fan of director, Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and despite the surrealism in that film I enjoyed the strong narrative along with the romance, but I guess a lot of that had to do with Charlie Kaufman's involvement in the writing of the script. Mood Indigo kind of feels like that short scene where Jim Carrey's character was sharing his memory from his childhood as a small scaled adult, with the exception that in Mood Indigo the entire film is like that. There are many surreal elements, like a rat sized man dressed in a rat costume running around the house, a door bell that takes a life of its own every time someone rings the bell, and there's a piano that makes cocktail drinks depending on the notes you play, among many other things (and did I mention how people's legs stretch like rubber every time they started dancing?). Mood Indigo is a great title, although I like the sound of the original French title, L'écume des jours, but the English title fits the film well because moods are a predominant element here. It is a unique film, but one that I had a hard time connecting with and got little enjoyment out of it.Despite not having a strong narrative, I enjoyed the performances in this film. Romain Duris plays Colin, a wealthy bachelor who falls in love with Audrey Tautou's character, Chloe. They quickly fall in love and everything around them seems to blossom. That is until Chloe develops a strange illness when a flower begins to grow in her lungs. Colin will spend his fortune and do what it takes in order to save her, but little by little the happiness and brightness of his home begins to lose its intensity. Other strong performances came from Omar Sy who played Colin's overly enthusiast chef and who prepares some strange dishes with the help of a TV cook, and then there is also Colin's best friend, Chick, played by Gad Elmaleh who is in a relationship as well and is always hanging out at his home. They all give strong performances and help set the surreal tone of the film with their energetic deliveries. It was great to see Omar Sy again because I really enjoyed his performance in The Intouchables. He was probably my favorite character in this film.Ultimately the film wore me out and I had a hard time sticking with the entire story because I wished it had a stronger narrative story. I never really cared for the characters here because Gondry was more focused on the images and the fantastical elements rather than on telling a story. This is as close as you get to watching a live action cartoon so if that is what the audience is looking for they will be pleased, but it just wasn't a film for me.

Sergeant_Tibbs It's been a long time since I've been acquainted with Michel Gondry. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep are two of my all-time favourite films. Be Kind Rewind was an unfortunate misfire but I already warmly welcome his style. However, I've never seen him quite so unrestrained like this. Mood Indigo is a truly fantasy world. No dream, no drugs, and nothing is how you'd expect. Not even dancing, not even a handshake. To say the world of Mood Indigo is surreal and absurd is an understatement and no words can quite grasp the chaos on screen. It's like an R-rated Dr. Seuss. Like Gilliam's Brazil. But, it's an absolute delight. Things may not make sense at any point, but it's not about symbolism, it's about expressionism. The characters are deeply human, and that's what counts. All these inventions, twists, obscurities all about emotion. And Mood Indigo constantly had me bellying with laughter or sinking an anchor in my stomach when tragedy strikes even when I wasn't sure what was happening.That's the spirit of filmmaking really, to feel how the characters are feeling, and this film achieves it admirably. But at times it is so dense that its hard to keep up. The special effects and production design are wonderful, but the way it's shot in HD does sometimes nullify its effects and brings us back to reality in a way it doesn't want (I would've preferred Gondry to not have his cameo). Sometimes the cast can't even keep up with it. I really wasn't sure about the cast at first. They're familiar faces, but they didn't seem to suit the tone, plus they felt too old. However, with the film's dark twist in the second half, so dark the film turns black and white, it did become apparent that these cast members fit this melancholic side of the world. I wish it wasn't so bloated in characters and was more restrained like The Science of Sleep. The great soundtrack definitely adds to its rich atmosphere too. I do hope this film will stick with me like his two best films. It may be manic, but it's thoroughly charming. Not Gondry's best but his best in a long while.8/10

Super Kino 30 minutes in the movie and the question was inevitable: "Still 90 minutes like this?" Unfortunately yes.Two hours with visuals in almost every frame: animated ringing bell, dancing long legs,soap-bubbles TV, Duke Ellington, stop motioned food, protons guns, Duke Ellington again and much much much more.Don't take me wrong, i love surreal stuff, I like Gondry and his past works too, from music video clips ('starguitar' and 'around the world' are two of my favorite) to movies (human nature, science of sleep, eternal sunshine and the 'Tokyo!' fragment) but this time looks like he maybe pushed a way too much the visual part of the story.I didn't read the book, but i've read around that the movie is pretty accurate to the script, the original story is very interesting to me but while watching the movie at some point you'll realize that you don't care anymore about what is happening in the story, because you'll get just distracted by all the visuals.The acting was good, almost everything was good but to me this was an artsy-videoclip-120 minute long and after watching it, i don't even know if i liked it or not. 5/10