Therenowned French film "Amélie," directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet,has finally come to America. Though praised in Europe, the film arrived here tomixed reviews. You will either love "Amélie" or you will hateit. I loved it!

Amélie (Audrey Tautou) is a young, somewhat quirkydo-gooder who thrives on helping others. She works at a café and takespleasure in little things, like watching rivulets when she throws a stone intothe river, and plunging her hand into a bag of grain. Most of all, she takespleasure in helping others be happy. Amélie befriends a lonely artist,encourages the heartless grocer's insecure assistant to grow strong, and,amazingly, helps her father with just a gnome and a Polaroid camera. Butespecially, Amélie freely performs her matchmaking services to lighten thehearts of the lonely.

With scheming plots and clever tricks, Amélieis master of her work until she meets a man (Mathieu Kassovits) with similarquirky habits and the same ingenious antics. Amélie finds that when itcomes to her own love life, it is not as easy to "make herself amatch."

The film is insightful and sweet with rich emotions rangingfrom sadness to anger and joy. It is a romantic comedy with drama, suspense andmystery that satisfied this moviegoer's every expectation of a good movie. If youget a chance, you should see "Amélie." It is a refreshing lookat the simple, important things in life.