Micmacs movie review & film summary (2010)

The director is Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Recall his magical “Amelie” (2001) and “A Very Long Engagement” (2004), and you'll understand its fancies. Recall his “City Of Lost Children” (1995), and you'll understand its problems. In an age when special effects can show us almost anything, there can come a tipping point when a movie is essentially only showing off. I'm not flatly against that, but in general, I like to delude myself that the story is in the foreground. It's a judgment call. You may enjoy “Micmacs” more than I did.

The story is about a sad-sack video store clerk named Bazil (Dany Boon). His father was killed by a land mine. As a child, opening a box of his father's effects, he finds the trademark of the land mine's manufacturer. Bazil grows up into a feckless young man who passes his time in the video store by reciting the dialogue of movies in sync with the playback. One day, after a series of shall we say improbable events, he's shot in the forehead. The doc flips a coin and decides to leave in the bullet (which was made by the same manufacturer as the land mine), even though Bazil could die at any moment.

Naturally, he's replaced at work. He's taken under the wing of a band of scavengers who live in a sort of Aladdin's Cave inside a mound of junk. This may sound sordid, but it's not. Imagine Steampunk Heaven. These people have the resources of a troupe of itinerant troubadours. They could start their own circus.

There's the contortionist named Elastic Girl (Julie Ferrier). The Guinness Book obsessed-type named Buster (Dominique Pinon). A master thief named Slammer (Jean-Pierre Marielle), perhaps because of where he's spent a lot of time. A woman, Calculator (Marie-Julie Baup), whose mind does mathematical wonders. A sage from the Congo (Omar Sy) who speaks in Fortune Cookie. And Mama Chow (Yolande Moreau), who feeds and mothers them. Oh, and a human cannonball.

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