Eiffel

I was really intrigued by the trailer for Eiffel so I decided to see it last night at the Broadway.  I enjoyed aspects of the film but it wasn't as good as I was expecting.  An engineer named Gustave Eiffel (Romain Duris), renowned for providing the structural support for the Statue of Liberty, is persuaded to enter a competition to build the centerpiece of the 1889 World's Fair.  When Adrienne (Emma Mackey), a woman from his past with whom he had a passionate affair that ended abruptly, enters his life once again he decides to build a tower dedicated to her.  Construction on the tower is beset with many problems but, when he rekindles his affair with Adrienne, her husband Antoine de Restac (Pierre Deladonchamps) threatens to ruin his reputation in the press.  Eiffel must ultimately chose between Adrienne and the tower that she inspired.  The images on the screen are absolutely beautiful with sumptuous costumes and atmospheric lighting.  I enjoyed the two lead performances, particularly Duris during a scene in which Eiffel gives a stirring speech to motivate his unpaid workers to continue building the tower, but Mackey does not age at all even though she appears in flashbacks meant to be twenty years earlier.  I have been to the top of the Eiffel Tower many times so I was absolutely fascinated by the engineering required to build it, particularly the method by which the four feet are raised and lowered by sand in order to align perfectly to create the first level (I was holding my breath during this scene and wanted to see more of the actual construction of the tower).  It was also very interesting to learn about the difficulty in securing funds and the public backlash against building it.  I was so engrossed by the building of the tower that the fictionalized romance seemed like an intrusion that didn't really advance the plot and it bored me at times.  The narrative would have been so much better if it had focused on the real Eiffel and his accomplishments instead of a romance that seemed shoehorned into an already compelling story.  I was a bit disappointed by this and recommend waiting until it is available to stream.