Jumbo

Jumbo, about a young woman who falls in love with an amusement park ride, features a thoroughly oddball premise that’s played remarkably straight. You hear a concept like that and just assume that the movie is going to be overly quirky and arch, and while it does have a vague quirkiness (how could it not?), for the most part it’s surprisingly earnest. It feels thin even at a brief 93 minutes, but it’s quite stylish and really well acted — in particular, Noémie Merlant (who also starred in Portrait of a Lady on Fire and seems to have a thing for forbidden romances) is great in the main role. She takes something that could have come off as absurd and makes you believe it.

**1/2 out of ****