The most effective praise one can provide the French serio-comic filmmaker Valérie Lemercier’s “Aline,” a biopic of Celine Dion wherein Lemercier performs a fictionalized model of the pop star from infancy via widowhood, is that it evokes the disorientation of discovering the singer as she was on her first album: a 13-year-old with snaggleteeth. The film’s ardour is unimaginable — however, boy, is it embodied in one thing awkward.
There’s barely time to regulate to the sight of the grownup Lemercier shrunken via cinematic trickery to the dimensions of a kid earlier than we’re compelled to grapple with the dawning consciousness that this tribute is meant to be heartfelt. “Aline” isn’t any prank, although the cinematography is as static as a Saturday Evening Reside skit. The director and her co-writer, Brigitte Buc, whisk via Dion’s timeline with effectivity. Lemercier observes the singer, right here renamed Aline Dieu, as she shifts from ballads belted to her mom (Danielle Fichaud) to ones aimed toward her Svengali and husband-to-be (Sylvain Marcel), who’s sincerely offered as her one nice love. Lemercier trots out Dion’s well-known outfits and interviews, her 1998 Academy Awards efficiency of “My Coronary heart Will Go On” and, when the motion shifts to Dion’s Las Vegas residencies, does a fairly good job imitating the star’s coltish, unpredictable dance strikes.
All “Aline” wants is a degree. The closest factor to at least one is Lemercier’s insistence that Dion wasn’t merely a larger-than-life icon however a mortal, too, with relatable worries about her youngsters, her sleep schedule and, er, getting misplaced in her 40-room mansion. To this finish, in a movie filled with covers (splendidly sung by Victoria Sio), Lemercier opens and closes with “Ordinaire,” the Robert Charlebois track: “I’m not a circus freak,” her star sings, including, “I’d prefer to be understood.”
Aline
Rated PG-13 for grace notes of sexual conditions and language. Operating time: 2 hours 8 minutes. In theaters.