"Amelie" is a magic realism fable told with imagination in overdrive. What could have been overly saccharin or cloying is saved by a wonderful combination of humor, inventiveness and the lovely Audrey Tautou as Amelie, the wide-eyed waif who becomes destiny's partner in making miracles happen for her Parisian co-workers and neighbors (and, ultimately, herself). Every moment there is so much going on -- visually, emotionally, narratively -- that it becomes dizzying, but it somehow gels to create a world that is at once dazzlingly complex and profoundly uplifting. Your first thought after the film ends is, "If life could only be like this." And then you think, "Maybe it is!"
