The Fairy (La Fée) By Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon, Bruno Romy

The story of the film is quite simple. A slightly depressed middle-aged man called Dom, who works the night shift in a hotel, gets visited by a fairy who grants him three wishes. Not taking her seriously he immediately wastes two of them, without thinking about the possible consequences. The next day he realizes that the woman was not joking at all, thus he pays her the deserved attention and after they spend a day together they fall in love. But then, Fiona the fairy goes missing.

This light-hearted story, which, as the title suggests, sometimes drifts into a kind of fairytale, is always ready to sacrifice realism and physical principles for a good joke. The film presents a colourful world filled with all kinds of weird, yet loveable figures, who remind us of cartoon characters more than actual human beings.

Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon give an impressive performance and in their best moments manage to match the likes of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton when it comes to their physical comedic coordination. Other characters also shine in this respect, but Abel and Gordon’s superiority makes their burlesque roots obvious.

The humour is conveyed through a wide range of cinematic devices, and the makers aren’t afraid of including some social criticism in a funny way, whether it is pointed at illegal immigration or the plastic contamination in the Atlantic Ocean. Of course, not every joke is going to please the whole audience, but The Fairy manages to entertain throughout its entire length, and the next great gag always seems to be right around the corner.

By Lukas Traber