"Micmacs" (with English captions) was a huge hit at the 2010 Seattle International Film Festival. After they shoehorned us into the theater, we were ready for fun...and we got it!
Writer/Producer/Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet ("Amelie") once again brings his trademark combination of whimsy, fantasy and social commentary, all tied up with a comedic bow. ("Micmacs" translates loosely to "Shenanigans.")
Dany Boon ("The Valet") is our hero, a video store clerk shot in the head by a stray bullet, which is left embedded in his brain because the surgery to remove it might prove fatal. (The operating team makes the decision based on the toss of a coin.)
He finally gets out of the hospital and returns to his old job, only to discover that he has been replaced; his boss is blithely unaware that it might cause him any inconvenience. Our hero quickly finds himself homeless and in desperate straits, as his father had been killed in Algeria years ago by a land mine and his mother has since died.
He finally gets out of the hospital and returns to his old job, only to discover that he has been replaced; his boss is blithely unaware that it might cause him any inconvenience. Our hero quickly finds himself homeless and in desperate straits, as his father had been killed in Algeria years ago by a land mine and his mother has since died.
He is "adopted" by a quirky group of street people who live at the city dump. As he reconstructs the events in his life, he realizes that the manufacturer of the land mines that killed his father is headquartered directly across the street from the munitions factory that made the bullet which changed his life.
What he and his loyal gang of resourceful chums do to them is both funny and appropriate, consequently we left the theater laughing and satisfied.
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