A man who has been shot and his motley group of friends pit arms manufacturers against one another.Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who is probably most famous in the States for Amelie, has a few signatures that you can see in every one of his films. First, each character is almost always given an extensive backstory so that there
are never minor characters just like, in life, there are never minor people. Second, the characters and situations are usually remarkably inventive and cleverly constructed. In Micmacs he's one for two. The main character is given five minutes of backstory, and his team of cohorts are given almost none, but the ploys they devise to catch the arms dealers are almost always delightfully carried. Watching a Jeunet character solve a problem is almost like watching a good magician.Other critics have discussed the political message embedded in the film. One positive review, by Ty Burr, states, "Micmacs is the equivalent of a circus troupe setting up a tent in a war zone: You're entertained, even delighted, but after a while you suspect there are more serious matters at hand," but a negative review calls it "shallow." I saw the politics as tangential to the central, character-driven concern, and though I sympathize with both of those points, it didn't ruin the film for me by either bogging me down with a message or having the message so separate from the plot that the final moment seems like a departure.Dominique Pinon is remarkable, a effervescent character actor, but the lead, Dany Boon, plays Bazil too cluelessly. Bazil doesn't seem like a clever guy when we first meet him, so when the plot makes his character perform clever ploys, it seems strange.Overall, Micmacs is bound to be a disappointment for Jeunet fans, but it is nonetheless a solid, entertaining spectacle.
July 27, 2011
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