MicMacs

From French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, in the same signature visually immersive style as his previous films Delicatessen (1991), City of Lost Children (1995), Amélie (2001) and A Very Long Engagement (2004), comes another visually distinctive, retro nostalgic film; the humorous, charming revenge comedy MicMacs (2010).

Part circus, part Toy Story, part Buster Keaton, part Mission: Impossible, and part Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, it’s a magical and enchanting mishmash of ingredients which produces a wonderful soufflé of color and childlike comedy. 

Highly inventive and imaginative, the story is about Bazil (Dany Boon) whose life is changed irreparably in two separate incidents that leave him orphaned in one instance, and homeless and brain damaged in another, both due to products manufactured by large weapons corporations. When one day he discovers the headquarters of these two corporations across the street from each other in a neighborhood of Paris, he decides to exact revenge in the style that Amélie Poulain would have been proud of. 

The homeless, easy going, good natured Bazil is taken in one day by a group of very unique and colorful secondhand dealers who live in a junk yard cave, and with their help the fun begins. Each member of his new family of outsiders has a unique set of quirky talents and they all decide to work together on a plan to help Bazil in his quest for revenge by setting the two arms manufacturers, who caused his misfortune, against each other in a series of brilliantly funny stings.

The plan is a sort of mission impossible with retro household gadgets and circus act feats of daring. Using their imaginations to create inventive tools from old salvaged equipment they set about their task with Buster Keaton style determination and with hilarious results. This film also reminded me a bit of the Wes Anderson animated film Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), about an underdog who also tries to outfox a group of big corporations using some very inventive techniques with comic results.

If you’re a fan of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s films you will not be disappointed. This movie is easily right up there with his best work since Amélie and Delicatessen. If you’re not familiar with this director’s work I recommend that you run out and rent these films asap. Your life is not complete if you have not seen these delightful movies. If you like the movies of Terry Gilliam or Tim Burton, with their distinctive visual worlds, and unique sense of childlike wonder, you will enjoy the films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet.  He is the Terry Gilliam of France, the Tim Burton of Paris.

JP