God is Great and I am Not

God Is Great and I'm Not (2001), or Dieu est grand, je suis toute petite, stars Audrey Tautou (of Amelie fame).

So much for the good news.

Although filmed before Amelie, this film was released about six months after Tautou's famous star-making effort. When God is Great was released in October of 2001, Amelie was still in theaters, still two months from the end of its phenomenal run, and had already been seen by about 15% of the entire French population! In fact, Amelie was the highest-grossing French film in France in 2001, beating out the first chapter of Lord of the Rings, and almost beating even the unassailable Harry Potter.

Rank	Name	Gross ($Mil)
1	HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE	48.137
2	AMELIE	44.454
3	LA VERITE SI JE MENS 2	39.594
4	THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING	35.119

And so God is Great, a minor film, seemed like a great disappointment to audiences who went to see it because it featured the hottest actress in France at that moment.

As the film opens, Audrey's character is 20, and a successful fashion model, nominally Catholic, has just broken up with her boyfriend and had an abortion, and attempts suicide. Pretty grim stuff for a romantic comedy about her search for enlightenment and true love! After her suicide attempt, she tries Buddhism, but can't stay awake during mediation. She also finds spiritual enlightenment exhausting, then she starts an affair with a non-practicing Jew, who is a veterinarian. Naturally, she becomes obsessed with converting to Judism, which is especially irritating to him, because he is not very religious.

NUDITY REPORT

Audrey Tautou gives brief glimpses of her breasts.

DVD info from Amazon

widescreen anamorphic

Yawn. If Tautou couldn't stay awake during meditation, how the hell did she make it through a reading of this script?

The problem is not Tautou, or her performance. She was nearly as captivating in this film as she was in Amelie, but the script had neither heart nor soul, and didn't lead to any real truths. She did the best she could with it.

The Critics Vote ...

Rotten Tomatoes summary. 18% positive.

Metacritic.com. 38/100. 38 is not high, but it is miosleadingly high. The HIGHEST score was 50/100. In other words, nobody liked it.

The People Vote ...

IMDB summary. IMDb voters score it 5.9/10

Despite riding on Amelie's coattails, it grossed a weak three million dollars in France, and was shown on a grand total of one screen in the USA, per IMDb.

The meaning of the IMDb score: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence equivalent to about three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, comparable to approximately two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, equivalent to about a two star rating from the critics, or a C- from our system. Films rated below five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film - this score is roughly equivalent to one and a half stars from the critics or a D on our scale. (Possibly even less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. (C+ means it has no crossover appeal, but will be considered excellent by genre fans, while C- indicates that it we found it to be a poor movie although genre addicts find it watchable). D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well. Any film rated C- or better is recommended for fans of that type of film. Any film rated B- or better is recommended for just about anyone. We don't score films below C- that often, because we like movies and we think that most of them have at least a solid niche audience. Now that you know that, you should have serious reservations about any movie below C-.

Based on this description, well, there is nothing wrong with the technical side, so I will be generous and say D+, but I can't imagine anyone who would enjoy this one.