Chicken With Plums

Marjane Satrapi's second graphic novel (after the evocative Persepolis) comes to life on the big screen. This one's a melancholic live-action tale about a temperamental Iraqi violinist (Mathieu Amalric, Quantum of Solace, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) who decides to confine himself to bed and wait for death after his beloved instrument is broken. Animated backgrounds and some wild flights of visual fancy attempt to mirror Satrapi's art style, but end up looking more like the fantastical-romantical work of French auteur Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amélie, A Very Long Engagement). The film is, at times, quite beautiful. At other times, the directors (Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, who collaborated on Persepolis) try too hard, straining the whimsy to its breaking point. 93 minutes PG-13.