Micmacs

A colorful, esoteric and original caper, Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Micmacs is loaded with dizzying visuals and dizzy characters, which you might expect from the director of Amelie. However, once the film’s plan is set in motion—an uncoordinated group former small-time circus performers, led by a video clerk with a bullet lodged in his head, set out to topple two of Europe’s largest weapons manufacturers through good-old-fashioned embarrassment—Micmacs struggles to keep moving forward. Fortunately, there is always enough happening that it’s sometimes tough—or simply not worth it—to bother with the story, but after an hour of good-natured idling has passed, you might wish there was a little more than the stuff on the surface.