Isabelle is an ex-nun waiting for her special mission from God. In the meantime, she is making a living writing pornography. She meets Thomas, a sweet, confused amnesiac who cannot remember that he used to be a vicious pornographer, responsible for turning his young wife, Sofia, into the world's most notorious porn queen.

What I liked about this film was how it circled around pornographic topics, but was never itself obscene. The language is rarely crude, and there is either no nudity or such small amounts to be almost unnoticeable. Yet, three of the main characters are (or were) actively involved in the pornography business.

I also liked the cheesy line delivery (such as the bit about "floppy disks"). I don't know if this was intentional, or something that just happened because they actresses were foreign... but it added a nice charm, I thought.

Wonderfully aloof writer-director Hal Hartley hits a speedbump with this heavy-handed comic oddity about eccentrics, losers and assorted misfits. Isabelle Huppert plays a former nun who is trying her hand at writing sexual fiction; Martin Donovan is an amnesiac (groan) she picks up in a diner. Hartley, who had his biggest success with this formula via 1991's dryly goofy and charming "Trust", is too self-conscious this time out, and the results are twee. Several funny lines cannot compensate for an ugly look and an overall lack of interest in these characters. Supporting cast of crazies includes Parker Posey, but "Amateur" skirts a dead-eyed blandness at every turn. * from ****

Hal Hartley's "Amateur" is an engagingly offbeat take on the "crime thriller" genre. It is also perhaps the most quietly thoughtful handling of amnesia (not as a plot trick, but as a subject) you're ever likely to see. But be warned: Hartley's refreshingly non-mainstream, detached, minimalist style takes quite some getting used to, and the ending is needlessly downbeat. (**1/2)