michel gondry's BE KIND REWIND (2008)

i've been struggling with this one all weekend, being repeatedly asked about it and not quite being able to recommend it. Be Kind Rewind is a thoroughly pleasant movie, and hard not to smile at, but it'd be dishonest to call it good; Eternal Sunshine (and to a lesser extent the affecting but minor Science of Sleep) suggested Gondry as a storyteller talented beyond the confines of his quirk, but Be Kind Rewind determinedly contradicts, clumsily throwing sentimental whimsy at a cute premise and calling it a movie. the "sweded" movies starring Mos Def and Jack Black (a good duo, even if Black's schtick is finally wearing thin) are a lot of fun, and the film would have perhaps been better off accepting itself as a simple frame for their VHS shenanigans, but its gentle, well-intentioned questioning of art's (and history's) relationship to its audience takes over halfway through and bogs down what should have been a light entertainment with ideas, however innoucuous and sweet, beyond its modest capabilities.