Micmacs à tire-larigot (2009)
Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Film Review

For the last five years, director Jean-Pierre Jeunet has been conspicuous by his absence.  Now that he is back you wonder whether the wait was worth it.  His latest cinematic extravaganza is a far cry from his sombre WWI drama Un long dimanche de fiançailles (2004) - in fact it is practically a return to where he started out, with the surreal blackly comedic Delicatessen (1991).  Here, Jeunet plunges unto a bizarre fantasy world (Paris reimagined via CGI algorithms) in which a weird caper plot unfolds at at such a pace that you will have a job keeping up with it.  Think of it as a virtual reality take on Mission Impossible, with an Exocet missile up its hind quarters.

The expectations that this could be another Delicatessen dissipate within about three minutes of the opening credits.  Micmacs à tire-larigot feels more like a tacky juvenile parody of Jeunet's work, lacking the intelligence, the poetry and the sheer magic of his previous films.  The characters are ridiculously over-the-top, so much so that they could be replaced by Nick Park animations and you would hardly notice the difference.  For all the frenzy of activity, the plot lacks coherence and substance and, compared with Jeunet's enchanting Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001), is a tedious affair that does its best to alienate the spectator almost from the word go.

Whilst the film has a few fleeting moments of brilliance and is visually spectacular, it is clearly a lesser work than previous Jeunet offerings, generally chaotic and humourless.  The cast (which includes some very capable performers) fail to make their characters more than what they are - grotesque comic book caricatures - and the mise-en-scène is so gratuitously over the top that you end up longing for the soothing balm of an Andrzej Zulawski film.  Jean-Pierre Jeunet and his crew clearly had a great deal of fun making this febrile adolescent romp, but not everyone will have anything like as much fun watching it.

Film Synopsis

Bazil has every reason to hate the armaments industry with every fibre of his being.  First his father was killed by an explosive device when he was boy.  Now he finds himself with a bullet stuck in his brain.  Leaving hospital, Bazil has nothing to look forward to.  He has no home, no family, no job, no money.  The only thing he has is an unrelenting raging fury against those who put him in this miserable predicament.  Then he meets a strange bunch of people who collect junk and live together in some kind of weird Aladdin's cave.  They adopt him as their friend.  Then, one day, he comes across the two armaments companies that have caused him so much grief.  With the help of his new friends, Bazin embarks on a personal crusade to topple both of these companies, bringing an end to their vile trade in the misery of others...