Dom and Fiona, an adorable, if slightly nitwitted, married couple share a simple life as teachers in a rural French school. He teaches physical education and she teaches English. They have a sweet little house.
But they live to dance the Rumba! They have a mantle full of trophies to prove it. One evening, driving home from a dance contest with yet another cup, they crash their car trying to avoid a man trying to commit suicide. They end up in the hospital, she with a leg amputated at the knee and he with an inability to remember anything, including who Fiona is. Complications ensue.
If this seems like a strange set-up for a comedy, you have to realize that this comes from a very different comic tradition than American. That tradition is the films of Jacques Tati. The camera is immobile and the action moves in and out of the frame. The sets and scenery are iconic -- some cows in the frame show we are out of the town and in the countryside, etc. None of the comedy in this movie is gross, sexual, satirical or sarcastic. It is good-natured through and through.
As with Tati, we are treated to elaborately choreographed pratfalls and sight gags. In one scene, Fiona returns to her classroom on crutches and tries to put down her briefcase, but it gets entangled in her crutch and she keeps losing her balance while flailing wildly. You might not see a scene mocking a cripple like this played for fun in PC America. Again like Tati, this is close to being a silent movie, although there is some dialogue.
The highlights of the movie, though, are two absolutely enchanting fantasy dance sequences. In one, they are sitting together glumly on a street, she in her wheelchair, and their shadows begin to dance on the wall behind them. The other is on the surface of the foggy ocean.
If this movie does not put a smile on your face, you're made of stone.
