Louis was an odd cat, and this movie revels in it. What a unique and charming experience!
Our proper Victorian narrator hints at what it’ll be early on. While speaking the hard facts of Louis’s life, she makes sure to pepper in phrases like “positively geriatric” and “vomited immediately”. Think silly sprinkled over serious.
Most every other technical aspect of the movie builds this whimsical vibe, wobbling between the seemingly contradictory. When Louis navigates the world through oddjobs, for example, we are made to feel energy and not just concern. When he stares into the eyes of someone a beat longer than is polite, we sympathize just as much as we are discomfited. Even a detail as small as the flicker of a candle is put to use.
OK, so Louis and this movie are goofy, we get it. What else? Well, his curiosity is insatiable and directionless. And one day it lands on something new: Emily.
As governess to Louis’s many sisters, Emily knows and can teach the basics of human interaction. Even more intriguing is that Emily is more open-minded than others in Louis’s social class. (The first time we meet her she is sitting in a closed closet . . . )
As the two begin to see virtue in each other, Louis’s sketches for the local newspaper reach new levels of beautiful. What’s this feeling? This electricity? It seems to move him and her and so many people out there . . .
Whatever it is, it’s what makes the story so romantic. And heartbreaking.
The more I think about this movie, the more I’m a fan. Its casting and performances are super; its colors, inspired; its music, somehow capturing the simultaneously insane and inviting nature of our existence. Everything about this one is a celebration.