Within the a long time since its launch to essential acclaim and record-setting grosses, Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s “Amélie,” the whimsical dramedy a few quirky Parisian girl discovering love via random acts kindness, has endured in popular culture and influenced a era of filmmakers, each for higher and definitely for worse. Few instances, nonetheless, have the imitators been as undeniably obvious about what they borrowed from it as Mexican writer-director Urzula Barba Hopfner, in her refreshingly endearing, subtly stylized debut “Corina.”

A 20-year-old agoraphobic dwelling in Guadalajara — México’s second largest metropolis and Guillermo del Toro’s hometown — the title character, performed by Naian González Norvind (“New Order”), wears boots, a maxi skirt and sports activities the French bob haircut emblematic of actress Audrey Tautou as Amélie Poulain. As if the visible parallels with Jeunet’s romantic fable weren’t already obtrusive, “Corina” begins with voice over narration over flashbacks that recount the protagonist’s tragedy-stained childhood within the aftermath of her father’s premature demise. The isolating tendencies of her fear-stricken mom Reneé (Carolina Politi) lowered Corina’s world to just a few blocks. She has by no means traveled exterior of the restricted demarcation she considers secure. She goes to work at a publishing home (inside a newspaper firm constructing), then to the close by grocery retailer, then again house counting her steps.

However regardless of the overly acquainted setup of Barba Hopfner’s character portrait, the narrative evolves into its personal idiosyncrasy, not solely by advantage of its Mexican context or as a result of Corina needs to be seen as a author, however as a result of its observations about self-actualization, braveness and the worth of stepping exterior of 1’s consolation zone (fairly actually on this case) thoughtfully expands on the themes that “Amélie” addresses. Each movies share a delightfully offbeat tone and a penchant for trying on the shiny facet, however their paths diverge in any other case.

Bored with her job correcting pulp novels, Corina acts out of character when the writer has bother with its most most worthwhile creator, Xareni Silverman (Mariana Giménez). The fits aren’t capable of persuade Silverman to vary the ending to her most up-to-date novel, which fits in opposition to expectations established all through her sequence in such morbid trend it would probably flop. After illicitly getting a maintain of the manuscript, Corina rewrites the conclusion by giving it a hopeful spin. She does it for her private success, however the modified textual content by chance finds its option to her boss’ desk. What ensues on this improvement, calling to thoughts an identical one in Pedro Almodóvar’s “The Flower of My Secret,” won’t qualify as surprising, however it units Corina on a plausible progress journey.

Leaning into Corina’s close to muteness when exterior the security of her house, González Norvind expresses the character’s aversion to new interactions and experiences with an nervousness ridden face and skittish physicality. Dialogue feels secondary to her efficiency of unassuming dedication. Wherever Corina walks inside her restricted area, cinematographer Gerardo Guerra (“Dos Estaciones”) shoots her very carefully, as if the body can barely comprise her.

As Corina’s supportive mom, Politi’s humorous tenderness makes for a memorable onscreen presence, whereas Cristo Fernández, taking part in a brand new clerk on the native retailer named Carlos, doesn’t a lot enter the image as a romantic curiosity, however a pleasant ally. That alone decenters romance because the motor of the narrative, even when Corina appears to love him.

The saturated shiny colours of Corina’s clothes distinction with the muted, principally grey colours of the publishing home’s workplaces. It’s an on the spot if apparent aesthetic option to denote that she occupies a distinct wavelength. At house, her colourful attires match with the pink-hued partitions and closely embellished interiors plastered with postcards and knickknacks for a homey, but stylized look that inevitably additionally calls to thoughts Amélie’s peculiar abode. “Corina” feels simply manicured sufficient for that deliberate aesthetic to register, however not a lot as to overwhelm the picture. That equilibrium additionally permeates Barba Hopfner’s filmmaking concepts.

The quaint pleasures of “Corina” in the end give option to a stunning protection of sanguine outlooks and blissful endings within the face of a world in disarray. Barba Hopfner confronts her movie’s protagonist by contrasting her with the pessimistic mindset of her literary heroine. The latter makes a robust case for a way individuals’s empathy has limitations, arguing that indifference takes over within the face of struggling. But, whereas Corina grew up sheltered in an atmosphere of suffocating warning, her model of bravery purports that consciousness of the evils that plague actuality, met with a want to hunt pleasure amid that darkness, may be radical. Neither ladies’s worldview is completely incorrect; it’s within the center floor between cynicism and optimism that “Corina” transcends lightheartedness and arrives at knowledge.

The filmmaker positions “Corina” in a uncommon center floor inside Mexican cinema: neither a hard-hitting, issue-driven artwork home providing like these usually at worldwide festivals, nor the toothless, broad comedies plagued with overexposed faces and trite storylines. Barba Hopfner’s creative voice emerges from behind the shadow of the references for an auspicious first outing that has legs to resonate exterior Mexico. Not like “Amélie,” success for Corina isn’t lowered to discovering romantic companionship, however in touchdown the chance to create her personal tales on the web page and in life. Even when the impulse is to scale back “Corina” to an adaptation of a better-known film, within the ends it rewrites itself into one thing new.