Up/Down/Fragile

Not unlike Woody Allen's recent Everyone Says I Love You, the latest film by French maverick Jacques Rivette is a sort of amateur musical, in which actors who can't really sing or dance attempt to do both, and in which enthusiasm and daring compensate for the absence of modern-day Gene Kellys and Judy Garlands. Thoroughly delightful from beginning to end, it's ultimately a bit too slight and unfocused to be truly exciting, especially considering its unwieldy three-hour running time. The actors, as usual in Rivette's films, are uniformly superb. Not Celine and Julie Go Boating by a long shot, but fun. (M. D'Angelo)