Adele: Rise of the Mummy
Director: Luc Besson
Starring: Louise Bourgoin, Mathieu Amalric and Giles Lellouche
The French filmmaker Luc Besson has a penchant for making action films in which the girls get to do all the stunts. His credits include 1990's Nikita, in which Anne Parlilaud played the eponymous criminal-turned-assassin, 1994's Leon that saw the debut of Natalie Portman, who was Oscar nominated for her turn as a child trained to kill, while the mega-hit space fantasy The Fifth Element and the historical epic Joan of Arc both saw Milla Jovovich flexing her muscles.
So it seemed like only a matter of time that the director of The Big Blue and Subway would eventually try his hand at making a female Indiana Jones. The French star Louise Bourgoin is a typical Besson heroine.
She has striking features, a smile as wide as the Seine and a body that seems to have jumped out of a comic book (this seems apt as the film is based on the Jacques Tardi comics Adele et la Bete and Momies en folie). She also has questionable acting talent.
Sadly, she is more Brendan Fraser than Harrison Ford, loveable at times but occasionally lacking in enough gusto and charm to completely woo the audience. As befits a heroine pitted into what in cinema has traditionally been a man's world, a number of the early jokes are aimed at showing that a woman has as much guile and is equally as adept at using her physical prowess to get out of trouble as her testosterone-filled counterparts. And boy is Adele Blanc Sec in a tight spot. The intrepid female reporter is first shown wandering through an Egyptian mausoleum in search of ancient artefacts where she has to dodge several obstacles such as rolling rocks, snakes and double-crossing guides.
Her tomb-raiding nemesis Dieuleveult is played by the former Bond villain Mathieu Amalric - he is covered in heavy make-up and looks menacing. The Egyptian scenes, though, are not nearly as much fun as the action that we've seen in the Indiana Jones and The Mummy franchises, and the film takes its time to get going.
It's Paris in 1911, which Besson depicts using the same fantastical quality that lit up Amelie. A pterodactyl hatches in the natural history museum, setting off a chain of events that sees a clueless detective (Giels Lellouche) try to find the connection between the prehistoric creature and a nutty professor (Jacky Nercessian). It's in Paris that the action works best.
The city is depicted as a glorious fantasy with can-can dancers and street performers, where mythical creatures are magically recreated. Indeed, it's the production values from the sets to the costumes (Adele has a series of amazing hats) that are the highlights. The hubbub is recreated with a huge wink and a sense of family fun. Yet there is not quite enough action to keep action fans going and not enough story to satisfy those looking for character development, so the movie lacks sufficient gusto and personality to be winning.
