"The Artist" Review

A silent movie, released in 2011? It's not as crazy as it sounds. Traditional in every respect- it's in black-and-white and fullscreen, too- The Artist is a serviceable tribute to an era long past us, and it's a good movie on its own merits.

George Valentin is a massively popular movie star, whose films routinely make big money and positive reception. At the premiere of his latest film, A Russian Affair, in 1927, Valentin bumps into Peppy Miller, a fan of his, and ends up getting her picture on the front page of Variety. Thanks partly to George's influence, Peppy manages to get a job as a dancer in a major film, and gradually makes her way up through the ranks, gaining bigger and bigger roles in each subsequent picture.

Two years later, in 1929, the studio that George is contracted to, Kinograph, decides to cease production on all silent pictures in order to focus on sound. George refuses, declaring that sound is just a fad, and decides to finance his own picture, writing, directing, producing, and starring in it all by himself. But it's no use- audiences flock to see Peppy's first speaking role, completely ignoring George's, and to make matters worse, the infamous stock market crash happens the next day, leaving George in complete ruin. As the years go by, Peppy continues to rise and George continues to fall- will he ever return to his former glory?

Though The Artist is presented as a silent film, and keeps to tradition for the most part, it can't help but indulge in a little cheating occasionally- to, thankfully, great effect. After viewing a sound picture for the first time, George suddenly begins to experience sound all around him, to the point where his ears are in pain; it's all just a dream of course. The film also gains sound at the very end, where the audience at last views the future that had been discussed throughout the story.

Obviously, without sound to work with, the acting really can't be compared to other modern productions, but still manages to be quite entertaining. Everyone is delightfully over-the-top, as every great silent movie was, and particular standouts include Jean Dujardin as George and John Goodman as the big-tempered boss of Kinograph Studios.

The Artist is a thoroughly entertaining film, but its winning so many Oscars is still a bit befuddling. There's nothing that's really wrong with it, per se, but overall it's nothing more than merely good. The characters are good, the story is good, the writing is good, and even the concept, while novel, is still just good. There were many superior films released in 2011, some of which weren't even nominated for the top honor. Congratulations to the entire production team for their victory, but they didn't really earn it.

All Right