Micmacs

Like most monolingual Americans, I can't speak more than a half dozen words in French (or any language other than English). When I visited Paris a few years ago, I attempted to greet shopkeepers with a friendly "Bonjour," only to have them all, without fail, reply to me directly in English so that I would stop mangling their beautiful language. I mention this because I have no idea what the title 'Micmacs' means exactly. From what I gather, it's Parisian slang that doesn't have a direct translation in English. Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet says that it equates to something like "Shenanigans." Perhaps the most fitting explanation I've heard is that the full French title, 'Micmacs à tire-larigot', essentially means "A Shitload of Trouble." That certainly seems to capture the spirit of the movie better than any other translation.

Jeunet first burst onto the cinematic scene with the apocalyptic black comedy 'Delicatessen' back in 1991. That film and follow-up 'The City of Lost Children' earned him (and co-director Marc Caro) a strong cult following. Jeunet then branched out on his own and made his way to Hollywood for the misguided and widely-reviled 'Alien Resurrection'. He returned to France and rebounded a few years later with his masterpiece and biggest international hit, the delightfully weird romantic comedy 'Amélie'. He followed that with the less successful but still well-regarded period romance 'A Very Long Engagement'. The next several years were spent working on an adaptation of the Yann Martel novel 'Life of Pi' that eventually fell through.

The failure of the 'Life of Pi' project put Jeunet in a mood to get back to his roots. In many ways, 'Micmacs' reclaims the anarchic spirit of his early films. French comedian Dany Boon stars as Bazil, a hapless video store clerk who is shot in the head by a stray bullet after witnessing a motorcycle and car chase outside his store. Bazil survives with the bullet left lodged in his brain, but soon finds himself unemployed and homeless. He's eventually taken in by a band of eccentric misfits and former circus performers who live in a junkyard. There's the human cannonball (Jeunet regular Dominique Pinon), the contortionist (comedienne Julie Ferrier), a kooky inventor, a conspiracy theory nut who can speak only in clichés, and a young math savant, among others.

One day, Bazil discovers that the armory that manufactured the bullet in his head is coincidentally located directly across the street from a rival arms dealer that happened to supply the land mine that killed his father (a soldier) years earlier. With the help of his new friends, Bazil sets out on a mission to put both firms out of business by playing the CEOs of each against one another, 'Yojimbo'-style.

'Micmacs' is instantly recognizable as a Jeunet film, in both his distinctive visual style and warped sense of humor. The picture is loaded with great slapstick and sight gags. (In one running joke, posters for this movie itself litter the city, frequently depicting the very scenes we see them in.) The director also freely indulges in animated fantasy sequences, an obsession with pointless list-making, and convoluted Rube Goldberg-ian chain reactions.

If anything, 'Micmacs' may feel a little too familiar to the director's fans, like a grab-bag of his favorite tricks and conventions. Despite its political topicality (which is fortunately never too heavy-handed), the story feels slight. 'Micmacs' is not a masterpiece on the caliber of 'Amélie', but even a superficial diversion from Jean-Pierre Jeunet contains more wonderment and cinematic bliss than five movies from almost any other filmmaker alive.

The Blu-ray: Vital Disc Stats

'Micmacs' is distributed in the United States by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Annoyingly, the disc opens with a promo advertising 3-D Blu-ray (this isn't a 3-D movie) and four movie trailers before the main menu.