La Cité des enfants perdus (The City of Lost Children)

What are we made of? A body? A soul? A mind? An identity? Isn't there a child in each and every one of us? What if one, or more, of those constituents is/are missing? Which of them is the most, or least, important? Can we even rationally compare their importance? How about qualities like innocence, brotherhood and greed? Are they also part of us? All of us, or only some, or maybe none?

These are the questions that kept jumping into my mind while watching this movie. One of my personal criteria of a good movie is whether it poses any questions. The good news is that even if you don't exert any effort thinking beyond what you see on the screen, most probably you will still enjoy this movie. The bad news though is that if you are too lazy to think, you will miss a lot.

This isn't yet another Sci-Fi movie only for the sake of showing off the latest and greatest in computer animation and special effects. The metaphysical themes presented in this movie were best served by the Sci-Fi script, and the script was best implemented through immaculate special effects, fortunately without overdoing it. This is the third movie I watch for Jean-Pierre Jeunet after Amelie and A very long engagement, and now I can say it out loud: This guy is a genius.

Mar adentro (aka The Sea Inside)

Is it a coincidence that this year's academy awards for best film and best foreign film both go to movies that deal with, if not promote, euthanasia? Although I'm totally against euthanasia, I enjoyed both movies very much. It's one - well, in this case two - of the very few times where I like the depiction of an idea that I don't accept. Regardless of the fact that I already had a position on that issue before watching each of the two movies, just watching such an intense drama inspires tough questions whose answers would have seemed trivial a few hours before stepping into the theatre and watching the movie.
So, which of the two is better? I don't know, and I don't care. That whole thing of "comparing" movies, or other pieces of art, doesn't make much sense to me.