Micmacs (French 2009)
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
With: Dany Boon, Dominique Pinon, Julie Ferrier, Andre Dussollier, Nicolas Marie, etc.
Jeunet is probably best known these days for Amelie, which is a bit to sweet for my taste, despite Audrey Tautou. I prefer Delicatessen and City of Lost Children. Darker, funnier and more imaginative films, like the current Micmacs.
Bazil (Boon) is a homeless man whose life has been defined by two tragedies. His father was killed by a land mine while serving in the army, and he was shot by a stray bullet as an adult. After the shooting, he wanders around, discovers a group of eccentrics who live in a junkyard and they take him in. Then, he learns that the mine that killed his father and the bullet that struck him in the head were made by two rival arms manufacturers with factories across form one another.
Sounds grim? No, because the movie has a goofy, almost surrealist tone, Jeunet’s specialty, when the group decides to exact revenge on the two death merchants (Dussollier, Marie) . Each of them has some skill or knowledge that contributes, whether a contortionist who can scrunch into small places (Ferrier) or a human cannonball (Pinon).
The plan is both elaborate and preposterous, and involves powerful electromagnets and silly clockwork thingmabobs. It is giving nothing away to say that the two baddies wind up destroying each other.
This movie is not Jeunet’s best work, but it is so silly while it makes points against the death industry that it is irresistible. And, compared to some of the “serious” thrillers covering the same ground, it does it with far more style.
You can take a kid, because of the cartoonish antics and lack of R-rated content. Boon, a Jeunet regular along with Pinon, is one of the finest film comedians working today.
B+