THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 2003 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): **
THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE (LES TRIPLETTES DE BELLEVILLE) is a dialog-free, animated film for adults that would have made a great short film, but, without speech or much of a story, it is seventy-five minutes too long.
This joint French, Belgian and Canadian production is lushly and beautifully drawn but has nothing to offer children and little to offer adults. Its PG-13 rating is another joke played on unsuspecting audiences by the MPAA. If this weren't an animated movie, I couldn't imagine the MPAA giving it a PG-13 rating since it features an extended flopping boobs sequence, intercourse with a standing prostitute and feces in the toilet. Parents who do take their kids to see this PG-13 rated animated film will be quite surprised to find these R-rated aspects in a PG-13 movie.
Forgetting completely about the film's rating, there just isn't enough in it to sustain anything more than a short. The film reminds one of GERRY, another of this year's head scratchers, which was an all-visual and nearly dialog-free production.
The story concerns the rescue of a kidnapped Tour de France cyclist. Some of the story's bizarre incidents are cute, almost cute enough to generate smiles, but no laughs. In one incident, an old woman fishes for frogs using a hand grenade. In another, a different old woman uses household appliances -- egg beater, manual lawnmower and a vacuum cleaner -- to work the sore muscles of her bicyclist relative.
THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE is another of this year's disappointing holiday films. Oh well, that gives you plenty of time to see THE RETURN OF THE KING again and again.
THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE runs a very long 1:20. The film is rated PG-13 for "images involving sensuality, violence and crude humor" and would be acceptable for teenagers.
The film, which is playing now in limited release, opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, December 19, 2003. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas.
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