There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

This movie is just a propaganda piece against the death penalty. Apparently a good one, since most people bought into its nonsense.I wanted to see this film because of its St. Pierre setting. Few in either America or France know that in 1849 as well as in 2012 there is a French colony in North America. The St. Pierre and Miquelin Islands just south of Newfoundland. And yes, most of the movie was filmed there.Anyway, one night one of the citizens is sitting in his home by candlelight, eating his soup, minding his own business. In a few moments he'll have his guts carved out by two men to settle an argument as to whether the victim was "fat" or "large." Such a reason to slaughter an innocent man! When one of the murderers is condemned to death, the execution is postponed in order to get a guillotine and an executioner. The wife of the Captain adopts the condemned murderer as her pet project. In the short-run, her meddling will permit the convict to become a local hero, when he saves a woman's life; but in the long-run her determined self righteous actions and that of her husband will result in the husband facing a firing squad --- with righteous indignation, of course -- and the convict having his head chopped off.Juliette Binoche then becomes a self righteous widow. Loaded with indignation, she vows to be the faithful widow until her death -- or until her next pet project comes along. Gag me!The story turns common sense 180 degrees on its head, yet many viewers loved this mess.

This film will be a little slow for some American tastes, and the performances, which are uniformly good, may seem a little pretentious. But this marvelous film with its solid plot and timeless themes make it a good movie. What makes it a great one is the acting of Daniel Auteuil and, to a lesser extent, Juliette Binoche.Many Americans are unfamiliar with the acting of the French actor, Daniel Auteuil. I have seen him in at least 20 films, in a variety of roles, and he is an accomplished actor, perhaps the most accomplished of our time. He has a difficult role in this film that requires a kind of underplaying and a certain stiffness in his performance. But he brings off his part magnificently.The main theme will provoke empathy and reflection in the attentive viewer. This haunting film, which really deserves at least two viewings, will stay with you and shadow your own ideas of morality and right and wrong. See it.

"The Widow of St. Pierre (Veuve de Saint-Pierre)" is a very unconventional relationship triangle, with resonances of "Dead Man Walking." Juiliette Binoche is much more interesting and complex here than she is in "Chocolat" as a Lady Bountiful who is pushing redemption with more than a tinge of sensuality.Daniel Auteil who usually plays hapless contemporary men at first looks as out of place in a period costume drama as Harvey Keitel does, but he brings the intellectual and moral sensibility of the 20th century to a true story from an earlier one.Love and devotion--to a spouse and to duty-- are quietly played out against sophisticated political gamesmanship of a small town. The cinematography in Atlantic Canada is beautiful; the pregnant pause close-ups are as claustrophobic as living on the island outpost. It was partly filmed at one of my all-time favorite historic recreations at Louisbourg in Cape Breton, Newfoundland. (originally written 3/18/2001)

Setting: Island of St. Pierre off of France (part of French Republic) in the year 1849-50.Plot: A guillotine named "the widow" is being brought over to the island from France to execute a man who at the beginning of the movie got so drunk he killed a man without any deep human evil as motive. The "problem" is St. Pierre is a gentle community and has no executioners that not even any of their sailors would bring any to the island. No executioner, no head. Madame La (Juliette Binoche) is such a gentle soul living there who believes the man is good and useful to the community but also hidden under the surface is innocently sexually obsessed with the man before she even really meets him which is what much of the community thinks she is leaning toward, especially some bored debutantes which are like counterparts to Juliette's character. Her husband is the warden of the penitentiary (Daniel Auteuil) under Paris headquarters but technically has jurisdiction because they are not in Paris so he allows the condemned to be at his wife's disposal because he supports her and they love each other, which is seen as signs of weakness by the ferocious Paris French Republic putting pressure on the local Republic making such questions arise: do humans make the law or does the law make us? Surely nobody in St. Pierre not having endured the repression of France needs to make examples by collecting heads except for the cowardly governor and admirals who are paid to appear strong. Of course there's a quote (i forget who it belongs), and i'm paraphrasing saying "real strength is having the power to destroy, but choosing not to". Madame La's lust for the condemned is no exception to this rule--her love having conquered all.