Le Petit Nicolas (2009) Reviews

• It's funny. End of discussion.

  Karl Self2010-09-14

  I love the "Petit Nicholas" books and René Goscinny is a personal god of mine, so I was very sceptical about this film. Especially because it's not "real-life" rather than a cartoon, whereas Jean-Jacques Sempés illustrations were essential to the charme of the books. But then the reviews were good and I gave it a try. If you look at Goscinny's humour, it's almost reactionary. There's the fat guy, the rich kid, the dimwit, the four-eyed squealer, the easily- ired father, the just-a-housewife mother. And they all translate well onto film. Goscinny's humour stems from letting those characters interact predictably but creatively and with perfect timing, and this movie's makers managed to closely reproduce Goscinny's genius. It's funny and escapist -- nothing more. Childhood as it should be. Sempé himself said that he created the childhood for little Nick he never had for himself.

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• A hilarious and a beautiful movie!

  egillsigurdur2010-01-25

  This movie is amazing. It is not often that I go to see a foreign movie, but people had told me how good this one was so I just went. And I do not regret it. The actors all seem to fit perfectly for their part. I found it hard to imagine how they were any different in real life. One gets kind of nostalgic, seeing those children in their school uniforms. The story is just wonderful, and it is really, really humorous, the entire audience laughed throughout the movie. It is not that kind of funny in the way normal Adam Sandler and those Hollywood movies are. It has something more to it, it is not, well, hollow (cannot really describe it). The way the director has got this set up, to see the world the way a kid sees it, to look into what's going through their mind, this is all just wonderful. I walked out of there with a little smile on, I was all fuzzy after having laughed so much. I would really like it if my town would start showing more foreign movies like this one.

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• Genuinely good

  nitznithya2011-04-10

  This is a very entertaining movie.Loved the opening credits were very creative. Kids looked adorably innocent when they are discussing about grave issues, which are actually mostly imaginary.Looks like the movie was made from real incidents or observations.The potion looked very similar to something I had made during school days, when I got hooked in Chemistry . Characters were well made, consistent and well played.Streets in France looks so beautiful.The beauty of the movie comes from its close resemblance to real life. Scenes of the medical check up, parallel parking, boss visiting the house were hilarious. Good background music too.Well crafted by creative minds,and great story.

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• I enjoyed myself that evening. Others (French) might not.

  n-mo2010-09-01

  French people might understandably be disappointed by a theatrical adaptation of the beloved Petit Nicolas, a character so familiar from their childhoods, but as one who was never mesmerized by the original form of these character, I did not go into this with expectations. But it's a fun little ride. The costumes, the décor and the acting are all impeccable--Valérie Lemercier is especially delightful. So, too, is the writing: the story is predictable, tidy, socially non-offensive and slightly fantastical--but self-consciously so. It is a tribute to and a mild, good-natured parody of 1950's aesthetic and moral values in filmmaking, and it works very well. Most contemporary period films delight in opening up the curtains on the skeletons of what they see as "repressed" past societies and in poisoning our sentimental collective memories with gritty filth (see « 8 femmes » for an excellent French example; "Titanic" for a classic Anglo-American textbook example). « Le petit Nicolas » is just here to remind us of what we were once supposed to try for--and it makes us wonder if it wasn't in some ways better than what we have ended up with... without, of course, being too moralizing. It makes for a good little weekday evening pick-me-up.

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• Slick Nick Proves Pick

  writers_reign2010-12-08

  It's not too difficult to see why this carried all before it at the French Box Office in 2009 and an uncredited cameo by Gerard Junot in a sly dig at/nod to his own multi-award winner Le Chorus is only frosting on a wonderful celebratory cake designed to appeal to both les enfants and les parents, a concoction in which Alain Chabat, the multi-talented and highly accomplished actor-writer-director had an authorial hand, one of five that prove that too many cooks don't always spoil the broth. The source material although beloved in France is almost totally unknown in England but the ensemble playing by the kids plus a great trio of adults - Valerie Lemercier, Kad Merad and Sandrine Kiberlain, playing her second school teacher on the bounce - render this academic. Nor need the plot - despite being secure in the love of his parents and friends Nicholas convinces himself that his parents are trying for another child that will eclipse him - detain us unduly. This is a film of observation and the observation is spot on. Roll on the DVD.

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