Amelie is my hidden gem. Hidden, not in the sense of film obscurity or lack of critical appreciation, but the understated power of its magic. Amelie is not a child, though she retains a youthful way of looking at the world, a kind of purity of vision that most of us lose the ability to retain, not from cynicism, though it can feel like that, or from trauma, though that too can impede progress. But progress to what? Not adulthood. Amelie does not need a man to make her grow up. This film is not about growing up. What Amelie lacks is authenticity, the power of self-generation, a kind of fixation on others around her which allows her to act as Angel/Devil dispensing a kind of divine justice on the undeserving world. Her morality doesn’t apply because all the other characters are sub-morality. They do not fit together, but happenstance can make them fit together for awhile. She is God to all but lacks the ability to set her own life in motion. But she knows the reason for her failure. She is unloved. Her lack of love and her lack of authentic life are one and the same.

But what a dangerous world this creates, for her and for us. Most of us talk in terms of self-empowerment, self-actualization as if this is some innate power within us all. A question of will power, of mind over matter. Others rarely factor into this ideal, and then only tangentially where idealized romantic/domestic life is seen as a way to complete ourselves. But we are not masters of our hearts. The power to grow, to self-actualize depends on this external force known as love. In truth, our condition is far from ideal and we are subject to the whims of happenstance. But we can believe there is an Amelie for us, a God with the power to remove the sting of loneliness and take our first tentative steps towards the authentic life.