The best way to describe Micmacs is as a quick trip through Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. Everything is colorful, magical and alive. That said, after a few interesting encounters you realize how episodic and light your trip has been. It’s an enjoyable little film, but not quite memorable.
In simpler terms, French auteur Jean-Pierre Jeunet‘s latest works better in pieces than as a whole here. It’s all a series of cartoonish episodes that barely come together in the end. It’s messy and episodic, but ultimately it works. It’s exactly what you would expect if Jeunet was hired to make a buddy-comedy. Instead of broad dirty jokes, everything is nothing but sweet quirkiness. Everything is pure screwball. This film is looking to do nothing more than to put a smile on your face, and succeeds in doing so.
Jeunet blends together an assortment of genres (revenge film, comedy, romance) to make for a nice adventure, following the goofy Bazil (Dany Boon). Ever since he was a boy, violence has been apart of his life. Bazil’s father was killed by a land-mine. The hero’s also got a bullet logged in his brain. He’s constantly on the verge of death; the bullet only needs to strike the wrong spot. Obviously, weapons haven’t brought much good to his life and once he finds out the manufactures of both the mine that killed his father and bullet lodged in his head are right under his nose, it’s time for revenge. He gathers a team to complete the task, hence the buddy-comedy angle.
The real star of this picture is Jeunet, who’s over-indulgent to be sure, but confident and visually ambitious always. A Jeunet film is an experience in palettes. His films, much like Tarantino, are obvious love letters to cinema. Nearly every shot could stand alone as a beautiful piece of art. While there’s nothing wrong with seeing a director indulge in his every instinct, many will find it jarring. Juenet never holds back. Depending on your stance on Jeunet in general, it’ll either make or break the film for you.
It also must be said that it seems Jeunet has it out for the younger generation. Nearly every child we see is either a skamp or someone who doesn’t appreciate classic cinema. At one point Bazil gets replaced at the video store he works at by a young girl. Instead of watching classics the way Bazil does, she watches a cartoon — which is ironically what Micmacs is like: a live-action cartoon. This is obviously a weird observation, but it definitely makes one question Jeunet’s take on the youth of today. Even a young child brings up Rambo for crying out loud.
Micmacs may be a film that simply works much better than it should. Most of that’s due to the fact it is such a visually-intoxicating film that distracts you from the narrative flaws. This is all good solid fun, but hopefully Jeunet brings a bit more substance the next time around. He’s typically not a style-over-substance type of guy.