Amour

This movie broke my heart.  I mean that in a good way.  Movies are supposed to make you feel something.  In the case of "Amour," that feeling is intense sorrow and loss.  When I used to work at Blockbuster Video (remember those?), girls would come in fairly often looking for a "movie to cry to."  I wish "Amour" had been out then.

"Amour," which won Best Foreign Language Film at last year's Academy Awards, is the story of an elderly couple.  The focus is mainly on the husband coping with slowly losing his wife to a series of strokes. 

So, let's get one thing out of the way: Yes!  There are subtitles!  Deal with it!

Moving on.  I thought I was going to full on cry.  The full waterworks.  The older I get, the more comfortable I get with getting misty during a movie.  But tears never touch cheeks.  "Amour" got closer than any other movie.  So ladies, grab the Kleenex for this one.  And fellas, don't be afraid to get emotional.  It's good for you.

The performances are the real attraction here.  Nothing against Michael Haneke, who may be the world's greatest living director, but the cast sells this movie.  Haneke seems to realize this and the film is shot extremely simply.  Just the shots necessary to capture the performances.  And music is non-existent.  Again, the actors are in charge of creating the emotional moments not a manipulative film score (although I do love manipulative film scores).

"Amour" is an amazing film.  I'm still in awe of it.  I'd like to watch it again because I was blinking tears back so hard and fast, it was like watching it by strobe light.  Don't miss it.  It's the best movie to hit video so far this year.

9.5 out of 10