Whim-nasium Ad Nauseum
27. May, 2010 
1 Comment
Micmacs (À Tire-Larigot)
A Very Overdone Estrangement
Official Website | Trailers & Mo
Remember how whimsical and cute, yet a lil too cutesy Jean-Pierre Jeunet‘s Amélie was? And then when J-PJ branched out a bit and got all somber and lovey dovey and WWI and shiz on us with A Very Long Engagement? And then what? Another 5 years passed and apparently he decided to merge the two flicks into one, a sorta Amélie with guns, goons and circus performers, as seen in his latest, Micmacs à Tire-Larigot. The title, with the last part chopped for the American release, means ‘non-stop madness’, and that aint no lie or a stretch for this unique writer/director, but we kinda wish the madness stopped every once and awhile, cause there’s only so much madness a viewer can take in one sitting, especially if it’s French madness!
So why so mad about the madness? Cause we said so. And a story about an orphaned and bullet lodged in the brain man (Dany Boon) getting revenge on the people responsible for his orphaning and bullet being lodged in the brain, with the help of a bunch of over-the-top misfits (Jeunet odd-ball regular Dominique Pinon, human pretzel Julie Ferrier, mousy Michel Crémadès, eye-poppin Marie-Julie Baup, etc), should totally be the knees bees! And it wasn’t! Somehow! How? Don’t know! Actually, we do know. Ever see a Terry Gilliam movie in the past decade? High concepts, banana visuals, and a whole lot of fun nonsense? All present here, and just like a Gilliam movie, it adds up to be one giant headache, although Micmacs is more of a sugary one, so a bit easier to digest
Maybe the missing ingredient for Jeunet is his former co-directing buddy Marc Caro or their writer Gilles Adrien. Delicatessen or The City of Lost Children anyone? Yeah, those were the forkin shaz!! Who wouldn’t want to dine out at orroam them streets again? So where does Jeunet go from here? Probably somewhere fanciful, and if so, he could be running himself close to fanci-empty
Summary of All Fears: Micmacs was like watching the incredible first three and a half minutes of Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, over and over and over and over and over and over. It’s like you’re unraveling a big cable-knit sweater that someone keeps knitting and knitting and knitting and knitting and knitting and knitting…
Verdictgo: Sum Merit But No Stinkin Badges
Micmacs opens in NY only on Friday and elsewhere elsewhen
and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…
