This is a movie about a young (well, 28 years young) French Canadian woman (Laurie) who is as crazy about riding her bicycle as Pee-Wee Herman was about finding his bicycle. There's so much bicycle riding in this movie, that - be warned! - your fanny might get sore from all of it!
I liked this movie for a number of reasons, not the least of which was that it just rolled along at a delightfully capricious pace. Though the movie coverd a lot of details about Laurie's and Lorenzo's respective lives (Laurie's in the present, Lorenzo's in the past), it never once bogged down. It just hummed along like, well, like a well-tuned bicycle. The background music is just plain FUN - it grooves, and really adds to the whole look and feel of a fun, cute movie.
The cinematography was excellent, you couldn't take your eyes off the screen, which was important, because they often used lots of rapid fire scene shots that - if you blinked, you might have missed something telling.
The acting was basically between Laurie and Lorenzo (Charlotte Laurier and Dino Tavarone), both of whom were superb. I especially liked Charlotte Laurier, who *absolutely* charmed and confounded me with her pixie-like appearance and performance. After she appeared with the close-cropped hair, I swear I thought she was Pinocchio!
Now, if I may indulge in a little capriciousness of my own... Later in the film, staying with Laurie's appearance, I had a flashback to the film "La Strada" - and Ms. Laurier's facial expressions started to remind me a lot of Giuletta Masina, who played the unfortunate waif (Gelsomina) in that movie. Then, still later, I couldn't shake the thought that Laurie's face looked like a morphed combination of Matthew Broderick and Mia Sara from the movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" (Mia Sara played Sloane, Ferris' girlfriend in that movie. The morphed combo of the two was all over Ms. Laurier's face, IMHO...) Oh well, see the film, you'll be amazed and delighted by Laurie's facial expressions.
One final comment: I was surprised to see a few scenes where Laurie, in near dusk conditions, was seen to be street-riding her bike, wearing rather dark (or at least, not "neon" or reflective) clothing, without a helmet, and without any visible blinkers, flashers or reflectors on her bike. Since I ride a bike myself in-town, I feel it my humble duty to mention, that this is not a real safe way to ride.
But do see this film, There's no one (other than a real grouch) who could not like it!
