Whimsical to a fault: In this new movie from the director of Am�lie, Dany Boon, left, is a video store clerk chasing arms dealers.
Micmacs
- Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet
- Written by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Guillaume Laurant
- Starring Dany Boon, André Dussollier, Nicolas Marié, Jean-Pierre Marielle and Julie Ferrier
- Classification: 14A
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, we know that. But where would a fanciful caprice register? Maybe some of us have a whimsy bone. But only some. Which explains why a French film like Amélie won fabulous reviews and the audience award at the 2001 Toronto International Film Festival. Yet even at the festival screening, some patrons sprang from seats halfway through, about to shred their clothes, feeling an Incredible Hulk tantrum coming on.
Amélie filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet's latest, Micmacs, a caper movie populated by quirkily adorable contortionists and mimes, is likely to have the same polarizing effect. Many will enjoy the film's bouncy spirit, bold Popsicle colours and ceaseless inventiveness. For everyone else, remember to wear baggy clothes.
We can all agree the film gets off to a fabulous start: A video clerk, Bazil (Dany Boon) is watching The Big Sleep, repeating Bogart's lines by heart, when a car screeches to a halt outside. Bazil runs out to see a hoodlum take one in the gut. Keeling over, the gangster flings his pistol. It goes off on the sidewalk - Kapow! - hitting Bazil square in the skull.
Now we're in a hospital, with a surgeon manning what looks like a Skilsaw, staring at the red hole in Bazil's forehead. "He could become a vegetable if we don't take the bullet out, or die any moment if we do," the doctor says. Then flips a coin.
Bazil traces the bullet to an arms dealer. Bent on revenge, he seeks the aid of the new French underground, street people who live beneath a vast garbage dump, salvaging for a living. There is a simple-minded contortionist who sleeps folded in the bottom of a fridge (with other vegetables is the joke here), along with a busted human cannonball, Buster, and a brilliant typist named Remington.
One more joke/pun: The hidden cave is cluttered with Rube Goldberg inventions. The tricks extend to Jeunet's plot, which has Bazil's crew employing all sorts of kooky contraptions - strings, pulleys and a giant magnet that summons a car high into the air. The name Bazil, we can be pretty sure, is an homage to filmmaker Terry Gilliam's spilling piñata of jokes and tricks, Brazil.
Sly jokes fly past. At one point a conceited bad guy compares himself to the French poet Rimbaud, who also dabbled in arms dealing. A kid complains the millionaire isn't big enough. "Not Rambo - Rimbaud," the dealer sneers.
Still, even the best jokes land gently. Which is maybe the issue Jeunet's detractors have with his films. A comedy should provoke more than smiles. Should have characters instead of show-offs. Although often charming, Micmacs seems so pleased with itself that it hardly needs an audience.
At least that's what someone without a whimsy bone might think. Everyone else will enjoy lead Dany Boon's relaxed performance and get a kick out of Elastic Girl (Julie Ferrier), a character who literally bends over backward to make us laugh.
Special to The Globe and Mail