The romantic French film “”Amelie,”” by the director of “”Alien Resurrection,”” Jean-Pierre Jeunet, traces the life of the independent young Parisian Amelie Poulain as she goes about changing the lives of those around her: some for the better, some for the worse. As she enchantingly and humorously sets her universe in motion, Amelie realizes that she is incredibly brave and scheming when it comes to the lives of others, but when it comes to her own, she is painfully shy.

Noticing that his past films are mostly dark, Jeunet set out to produce this “”truly positive film.”” Casting a fairytale-like enchantment on Paris as he films Amelie’s humorous antics, Jeunet captures a realistic heroine, played to perfection by Audrey Tautou, and purposefully evokes emotion through his innovative use of the camera and a perfect amount of computer animation. Both add even more magic to this already charming movie.

From the very beginning, Jeunet brings the audience into the film by directly addressing them and informing them of the “”likes”” and “”dislikes”” of each person. Although they seem random, whimsically humorous preferences, they make each character more real. Throughout the film, Amelie continues to talk to the audience to keep them following the plotline.

Mathieu Kassovitz (the mugger from “”The Fifth Element””) plays Amelie’s equally quirky love interest. Although he doesn’t meet the American ideal of “”hunk,”” the audience cannot help but fall in love with him.

Although some of the characters are sometimes too annoying to be liked (such as Serge Merlin’s character, Joseph) they still add to the realistic atmosphere of the film.

This is the best movie to appear in quite a while, so don’t discriminate against it because it’s foreign, because it will leave you feeling thoroughly satisfied (even if you’re a guy).

Amelie

****

Starring Audrey Tautou, Serge Merlin and Mathieu Kassovitz

In theaters Nov. 9

Rated R