The Fairy

Dom (Domenique Abel) is a bored, bicycle-riding clerk at a French hotel who one night checks in eccentric Fiona (Fiona Gordon), a spacey woman who claims to be a wish-granting fairy. Dom's request for a scooter with unlimited gasoline comes true—or at least he wakes up the next morning to find one in the office (Dom also has a key to access fuel from a huge tank). Rubber-limbed Fiona is either a genuine magical being, or a madwoman, or both, not above stealing, smuggling, and freeloading in her monomania to make the wishes of various people come true. Very soon Dom and Fiona are lovers, on the run from authorities and asylum doctors, in a cartoon-panel landscape of sight gags, puns (verbal and visual), deliberate artifice, and oddball recurring background characters, including an almost-blind waiter played by Bruno Romy, who shares writing and directing credits with leads Abel and Gordon. The Fairy deftly employs timeless slapstick within an absurdist-surreal narrative that recalls the work of Jacques Tati. A fun romp, this is highly recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include a stills gallery and trailers. Bottom line: a small extras package for a winning film.] (C. Cassady)