a SIFF 2010 review
Jeunet’s Whimsical Micmacs a Junkyard of Riches
Acclaimed French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s films are a diverse bunch. From Delicatessen to Alien: Resurrection, from Amélie to The City of Lost Children, the mind behind masterpieces like A Very Long Engagement has managed to put his own idiosyncratic touch upon every single thing he has every touched.
Dany Boon and Julie Ferrier in Micmacs © Sony Picture Classics
Now comes Micmacs (Micmacs à Tire-Larigot), one of the filmmaker’s strangest and most unexplainable efforts yet. A lighthearted fable about a man, Bazil (Dany Boon), struck multiple times by tragedy (including a bullet to the head) who joins forces with an eclectic group of junk merchants to face-off against competing weapons manufactures, this movie defies easy classification or simplistic descriptions. It is pure cinema almost for the sake of pure cinema, at its heart a surprisingly moving love story that ended up catching me almost by complete surprise.
This is one of those films where the less said by me the better. Audiences should go as cold as possible, and much like Jeunet’s early efforts Delicatessen and The City of Lost Children part of the pure joy of Micmacs is in the discovery of its world and the characters who inhabit it. The film is like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs except that inside diminutive miners you a cadre of junk maestros and instead of a princess you have a film noir junky with a bullet lodged right up inside his brainpan. It’s odd and surreal but also quite beautiful, and once you get past the fact the story is only window dressing this ends up being a one-of-a-kind cinematic experience that’s positively dreamy.
I did squirm in my seat now and then I must admit. The story is like a mishmash of A Fistful of Dollars mixed with Aladdin, sprinkled with The Big Sleep and finished off with a gentle helping of the Brother’s Grimm for good measure. It’s a malevolent, yet whimsical, fairy tale of retribution, justice and revenge, but trying to keep track of its nonsensical twists and turns was sometimes enough to give me a minor headache.
Normally the above statement would be a movie’s undoing as far as I am concerned. Normally I am averse to films that offer up style over anything substantive. Normally I say and feel a lot of things, but like so much in like normally isn’t always the norm, and in the case of Micmacs even with all of the things about it that annoyed me I still found myself captivated, sometimes to the point of awe. Jeunet’s opus is an unusual animal in so many ways it’s virtually impossible to not enjoy it, and even though I admittedly wanted more heart and more soul (at least in regards to the characters) the final product works more or less beautifully.
There’s not much else for to say. From production and set design, to cinematography, to the performances, to the musical score featuring cuts from Warner Bros. legend Max Steiner, there is plenty to love about Micmacs. Jeunet balance the ludicrous with the sublime, the horrific with the beauteous, and he does it with absolute confidence. While admittedly not for everyone, as a fan of the filmmaker I was willing to go where ever he decided to lead me, this junkyard cave of riches a sprawling achievement easy to adore.
Film Rating: êêê (out of 4)
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