My Review of The City of Lost Children.

I recently watched City of Lost Children and would like to share my thoughts on the movie.

            First off, I’ve been meaning to watch this movie for a while now but the amount of books I’ve had to read, video games I’ve been meaning to play, and women I’ve wanted to go on dates with, has kept me exceptionally busy. 

            The City of Lost Children is a French SciFi film that hit theatres in 1995. For some bizarre reason, don’t ask me why, the main character is portrayed by Ron Perlman who speaks about as much French as a deaf parakeet. Surprisingly, I find this confusing choice of lead role a story enhancer. I guess Ron Perlman was destined for comic cons since the inauguration of his acting career.

            The story is entertaining. It’s about a young man who is goes out on a mission to rescue his adopted younger brother. This quest feels more like a random string of events without any stalwart plan of how he will actually find his brother, but it adds to the charm of the movie. As well as the characters Ron meets along the way.

            Directors, Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet do a fantastic job at portraying character development, especially between the characters of Ron Perlman and Judith Vittet. By the end of the film I found myself completely attached to their relationship and it gave off a vibe similar to the love between the father and son in The Road by Cormack McCarthy.

            The art direction is one of my favorite aspects of the film. It’s this creepy cocktail of SciFi and steampunk that creates an aesthetic similar to what you’d see in a Tim Burton film. It’s dark, green, gritty and machine based. I think based on the art direction alone, this film really stands out and is worth seeing on that merit alone. All in all I enjoyed this film and recommend it to anyone who has an interest in speculative fiction and urban SciFi storytelling. I give this move a 7.8 out of 10.