Movie Review: Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s “Micmacs”

Micmacs by Jean-Pierre Jeunet is an improbably zany answer to the war on terror, from the director of Delicatessen, Amelie, and A Very Long Engagement.  The comedy about an underground army of outcasts who declare war on arms traders seems like an odd fit. Its about as far from the melodramatic realism of 24 that you can get.

Dany Boon & Yolande Moreau in Micmacs

Odd juxtapositions are Jeunets specialty. His warmhearted films tend to be cluttered with piles of trash and odd objects scrounged in the humblest of flea markets. His cast of character actors (lots of Delicatessen alumni are in this one) defies any notion of whats chic. Dont be fooled. Hes as adept as any French director in using technology to tell his stories. And the David-and-Goliath fable in Micmacs couldnt be more welcome for its distinctions between right and wrong.  Yes, its wrong to be making cluster bombs that kill anyone within a few hundred yards.

Dominique Pinon in Micmacs

Hapless Bazil (Dany Boon), orphaned when his parents died in a terrorist bomb attack in North Africa, is hit in the head by a stray bullet. Indifferent surgeons operate on him, but Bazil survives, only to be homeless in Paris. Hes befriended by a team of outcasts who live underground in vast caves filled with junk.  This team of inglorious basterds become his shock troops in a war against the arms mega-firm that manufactured the bullet that hit him.   A comedy of terrors?

Imagine Buster Keaton meeting Jacques Tati in a  baroque arte povera landscape.  Ultimately Micmacs is a fairy tale about the triumph of good over evil (told by an obsessional collector of ephemera, Jeunet). Its also  a reminder that you dont have to be beautiful to be a hero.  If you ever wondered about the influence of Tim Burton and Terry Gilliam on French directors, here it is.