(Rated PG for mild coarse language and sexual references)
 
 
'Sweden's not a verb, it's a country.'  Welcome to the wonderful world of Gondry, the film's screenwriter and director.
 
Michel Gondry, the Oscar-winning, different-minded rock video genie who gave us Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Block Party , has his own Disney-like attachment to fantasy and could be said to be fairly heavily influenced by the magic realism school of lit.
 
The scene is set around an condemned, old-fashioned video store named 'Be Kind Rewind', in an equally old-fashioned New Jersey suburb, Passaic. The shop's touted as the birthplace of jazz great and all-round jovial cat Fats Waller, but what we know for certs is that Fletcher (Danny Glover) lives there with his pseudo son Mike (hip hopper turned thesp Mos Def).

Business is bad, and not helped any when Fletch wanders off, leaving Mike to watch both the store and Mike's mate, neighbourhood weirdo Jerry (the excellently insufferable Jack Black).

Freakishly, the store's complete holdings are wiped through a magnetised Jerry, so the deluded duo have to 'Swede' (i.e. re-shoot) the movies in their own sweet if not twisted manner.  

This is fun, if frustrating; if you discount the existence and supremacy of DVDs you'll get closer to swallowing the premise.

Be Kind Rewind offers a partly-sentimental, partly-caustic, always self-conscious examination of pop culture through the Sweded remakes and the efforts of the community to help save the stores.

Don't go expecting a plausible plot or characters you can easily warm to: this is hilarious at times, and it is always worth keeping your eyes peeled for reverential references to films of yore. The low tech special effects and over-the-top ham acting (you'll never be able to watch Driving Miss Daisy again without smirking)are memorable without perhaps winning over filmgoers completely. 

Hats off to Melonie Diaz for a breakout role as the dry cleaning femme-fatale-next-door turnd leading lady (hence love interest), Alma, and those old burlesque boilers Mia Farrow and Sigourney Weaver for their classy supporting roles.

While this is a beautiful film, visually speaking, and heart-warming in an essentially heartless way, Gondry coulda done with Charlie Kaufman's help here (Gondry shared the Oscar with the quirky writer for Eternal Sunshine). That said, this is a sweet movie that will annoy you at the same time as it endears itself.

 
Catch it quickly before it hits the DVD shelves (I wouldn't be hanging out for a Sweded version on video).