This is grand cinema.

The comic-dramatic divide of A Very Long Engagement is difficult to traverse, much less conquer. It's simply hard to be charmed with all those corpses scattered about.

Merging heart-wrenching emotions with quirky humor and splicing bloody war footage with goofy comedy, the movie mixes vastly disparate elements into a surprisingly smooth blend.

With detail crammed into literally every frame, you'd be hard-pressed to find a more imaginative film this year.