Review for Micmacs

Introduction

I still do occasionally get on the hype train. It isn’t so much with the Hollywood mainstream though, as I find my desire to venture into a multiplex diminishing by the year. But once in a while on a forum somewhere, there will erupt a fan frenzy about a non-mainstream title, and I do get the urge to jump on the bandwagon. My free time being what it is, said bandwagon will have pulled over to the side of the road with a busted wheel by the time I catch up. It’s been the better part of three years since there was a lot of favourable buzz about Micmacs on the forum on this site, and I made a mental note to check out its Gallic charms at the first opportunity. The first opportunity was last night...


Bazil hasn’t had an easy life. As a boy in 1979, he lost his father to a landmine explosion. Then 30 years later, he’s hit by a stray bullet during a shootout outside the shop where he worked. The bullet lodged in his brain, essentially leaving him with a death sentence if it should ever shift. The injury to his brain also brings out the quirky side of his personality. Worse, when he gets out of hospital, he’s penniless, homeless and without work. Fortunately he finds new friends and a place to live under a junkyard. The odd group of misfits make their living finding, renovating and discovering new uses for discarded items, and soon Bazil is helping them scavenge. It’s during one such expedition for junk that he winds up on a street between his two worst enemies. On one side there is the company that manufactured the landmine that killed his father, and on the other is the company that made the bullet that is lodged in his brain. He vows to have his revenge on both companies, and with the aid of his new friends, and some distinctly low-tech inventions he sets about bringing both companies down.

The Disc

You’ll have to find someone with a far more critical eye and ear than mine, as well as a far larger television set to find fault with this transfer. As far as I could tell, the 2.35:1 widescreen 1080p image, and the DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround French track were perfect. There were no glitches, no pixellation, no aliasing, and no dropouts or distortion, none of the little things I usually pick nits at. The film looks and sounds gorgeous. It’s a Jean-Pierre Jeunet film, and he once again creates that alternate Paris that so managed to charm in Amelie. The colour palette is rich and warm, each frame is replete with detail and atmosphere, and the HD presentation really serves the fairy tale feel of the story well. The dialogue is clear throughout, the surrounds are put to good use bringing across the action sequences and the music, although it’s more a detail focused audio track rather than extravagantly bombastic. The subtitles are accurately timed and free of spelling or grammatical error. There is also a PCM 2.0 Stereo track in French which I didn’t sample.

Extras

Micmacs is presented on a single-layer disc that autoplays with trailers for I Love You Philip Morris, Remember Me, and Meet the Joneses. The disc presents its content with the obligatory animated menu, while the only extra feature is a 9 minute interview with director Jean-Pierre Jeunet. It’s a brief but informative piece.

It’s a little disappointing that we are short-changed with the extras when compared to the French release, which has longer featurettes and a commentary as well. The US Region A release has the same extras, and it translates them into English too.

Conclusion

Micmacs is a delightful bit of whimsy, a film that slots in well to that world created in Amelie, that of a golden coloured Paris populated with quirky and larger than life characters, invoking a nostalgia for a period that never existed. Naturally it shares a directorial style with Amelie and Delicatessen, but the visual inventiveness and sheer imagination explains the ‘Live Action Wallace & Gromit’ quote plastered across the front of the Amaray case. In terms of story however, it plays more like a cross between Ocean’s Eleven and A Fistful of Dollars. Dany Boon, who plays the lead role of Bazil, shows a flair for visual comedy, combining the slapstick with the melancholic in a way that reminds me of Chaplin and Buster Keaton.


Following the accidental shooting, Bazil finds succour with a group of very eccentric friends who live and work in the junkyard, and the differing personalities make for some colourful moments. But they turn out to be loyal friends when he discovers the companies that brought such tragedy to his life. Revenge is usually a cold-hearted business, but Micmacs is a warm comedy, so Bazil’s revenge is more a matter of facilitating justice than malice. With his new friends they make an unlikely team of master con-artists, but with their bodged together contraptions they prove quite the match for their foes. And in true Fistful of Dollars style, Bazil plots to play both companies off against each other. The mechanics of how he goes after his revenge are a joy to watch.


Visually the film is captivating, rich with gags and stunts, and little bits of visual comedy. The look of the film is beautiful as mentioned, and I love the way that different design styles are used for the characters. Bazil and his friends in the junkyard live in an Aladdin’s cave of bodged together riches, with all manner of low-tech and vintage technology surrounding them. The first villain, de Fenouillet whose company created the landmine that killed Bazil’s father, is a purely traditionalist businessman, somewhat old fashioned and reserved and that is reflected in his home and his workplace. The other villain, Marconi, whose company made the bullet that is lodged in Bazil’s brain, is a forwards looking modernist, and again that tells in his workplace and home, and his wardrobe.


Micmacs is fun, it’s funny and it’s beautiful to watch. No one quite does this kind of quirky comedy as well as the French, and it’s a breath of fresh air if all you’ve been watching is the Hollywood mainstream of late.