The Fairy or La Fee is about an unlucky hotel clerk whose luck finally turns around when he meets a woman who claims that she is a fairy. The Fairy requires your complete attention to appreciate the physical humor, the gracefulness and beauty of ordinary looking people and the surrealism of both the sour and sweet aspects of daily life. The Fairy is consciously visually retro. The Fairy evokes Edward Hopper’s paintings, classic Hollywood musicals and a Disney-like underwater sequence. The Fairy proudly provides frequent homages to the heroes of the silent era like Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. The Fairy is not all fantasy, but frequently provides social commentary on immigration, tourism, pollution and mental illness in the same vein as the films of Elia Suleiman without the explicit privileging of history over relationship. The Fairy is primarily interested in romance, and everything else is important, but not essential. Perhaps some scenes last a little longer than necessary, but if The Fairy can walk the fine line between a reasonable explanation and magical realism, then The Fairy is a success and subtitles should not dissuade you from giving it a chance.