The Extraordinary Adventures Of Adele Blanc-Sec: Review

French cinema is a strange bird. It delivers some outstanding dramas and first-rate thrillers that Hollywood cannot wait to get their hands on to remake and ruin. Every so often, they also produce a film that is so left-field, so out there, that you wonder if this is the same country that produces work like The Class or Tell No One. The Extraordinary Adventures Of Adele Blanc-Sec is just one of those movies.

Adele Blanc-Sac (Dry white, like the wine) is a reporter on a personal mission; to bring back the mummified doctor of a Pharaoh in order to save her twin sister, a paralysed woman with a hat pin through her head  (long story). With the help of a scientist with special powers, the doctor can be brought to life. What she doesn't know is that a Pterodactyl has hatched from the local museum and the scientist has mental powers over it. Got it so far?

To say that the plot is this side of bonkers is a massive understatement and as the film progresses it gets even more bizarre. Most of the time, if you had to sit through a film this crazy, you would think it was the worse thing on earth. Not the case. Instead, this is a gloriously loopy yet delightfully charming romp that will make you smile no matter what frame of mind you are in.

Luc Besson, who hasn't been on direct duty for a while (if you forget the animated Arthur and the Invisibles movies). Busy with writing and producing The Transporter films and reinventing Liam Neeson, Besson has decided to take the famous French graphic novels and introduced to the world the feistiest female that has very graced the screen.

The beautiful Louise Bourgoin is sparkling as Adele, a woman who looks like she is a true lady in the turn of the 20th Century but has a more determined attitude than Ripley! She commands the screen with every scene she appears and is a star in the making. Mathieu Amalric (from Quantum of Solace) is completely unrecognisable as Adele's nemesis. The only problem being he is given very little screen time.

The set pieces are brilliantly handled. A trip in an Egyptian tomb is brimming with ideas and threats while scenes in which Adele tries to get the scientist out of prison are both very funny and clever. The only real let-down is the effects used with the Pterodactyl but that can be forgiven as the rest of the film is so much fun.

If you do go and see this surprisingly delightful tale, stick around for an extra scene during the end credits. This is the most fun I have had in a French film since Amelie (it has plenty of its surreal qualities) and i cannot wait for another of Adele's extraordinary adventures.