Solidrariol Am I Missing Something?

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Anoushka Slater While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

writers_reign Clearly not for everyone as the comments here prove. It you're prepared to suspend your disbelief, meet it half way, and accept it on its own terms, you will be enchanted, which is surely reward enough. We're talking labor of love here as the husband-and wife actor-director team set out to charm us with a willow-the-wisp soufflé' which has overtones of The Mad Woman of Chaillot, and whose 'message' is little more than 'love is where you find it'. A woman, with no baggage, arrives at a small hotel and explains to the new night-clerk that she is a fairy who has the power to grant him three wishes; rather than wealth beyond the dreams of avarice, he asks for a scooter and an unlimited supply of petrol, leaving the third wish on hold. Naturally the woman normally sleeps in a nearby mental hospital, to which she is soon returned, but by now the clerk is smitten and we are drawn in to this unconventional love story - or not, as the case may be. If you still have a child within you and take it along neither of you will be disappointed. If you have lost and/or abandoned the child within you, then don't go.

Uriah Piddle So God created a fairy but before the fairy has much of a chance to learn the ropes, the world locks her up in an asylum. But the fairy escapes and comes to the gentle, lonely hotel night clerk. She grants him wishes, she saves him from choking on his midnight snack, she brings a giving, almost motherly kind of love into his life. That's the bones of this beautiful love story and if you like love stories, please see it. As to the details, there are many laughs. I'm a big Tati fan and his influence is all over this film. But the sight gags as well the the movement in general are much more pronounced than what you find in 'Mr. Hulot's Holiday' or 'Mon Oncle'. Where Tati is for smiles, 'The Fairy' is for laughs. Fiona Gordon, who plays the fairy (she also co-wrote and co-directed the movie with her husband, Dom Abel) is all over the place with her gangley arms and legs. Sometimes she looks like a gooney bird trying to take flight. And she has the kind of homely face that translates to transcendent beauty. The dance numbers are wonderful. This is modern dance without that deadening seriousness about itself that you see too much of on public TV. Some reviewers have stated that some of the gags fall flat. That might happen if you don't let Fiona and Dom borrow your heart. Lend them your heart and the obvious intent of this wonderful film -- to make you happy -- will be fulfilled.

bonjour_tristesse71 Although this film contains one of the best images I have ever seen in a film ( the tug of war contest over our lovers embracing) the humour was cartoonish tom-foolery. The audience quickly grew tired at being told when to laugh; all that was missing was a drum roll and symbol crash.The audience was left cringing in pro- longed,embarrassed silence. It seemed every bit- actor wanted the camera's attention for as long as possible adding to the squirm in the seat factor. Our lovers were more like elongated, gangly ,naive siblings. Pointless sub-plots add to the surreal feel of the film. There were lots of nods to the silent era ( our heroes are mime artists, so not fully surprising) but there was no mastery of subtlety- unlike Le Havre. Sweet but full of eye-rollingly excruciating moments.

Framescourer A hugely enjoyable, loony French physical comedy, The Fairy concerns a ditzy love affair played out between the eponymous fairy godmother wish-granter and the night watchman of an hotel. A system of equally altered-reality characters circle these two: African asylum seekers; hospital inpatients and staff; a female rugby team (Les Dieselles. No, really). Episode by episode the comic narrative plays itself out, in a mixture of Jacques Tati sight gags and Pina Bausch- style movement and choreography. Abel, Gordon and Romy (the actors- director)'s camera acts like the hands of the illusionist, framing and focusing on the action, the participants, the limits and contents of the jokes, irrespective of anything else - including the rest of the film - around them. It's escapist fun of a pure dimension, escaping even the strictures of the causal narrative about itself. Light and warm, like the summer breeze on the cliffs of Le Havre. 6/10