Le Havre

Saw Le Havre. It opens with the protagonist, a shoe-shine man, sadly watching endless pairs of un-shine-able sneakers pass by. Suddenly a pair of dress shoes appear and what follows is a direct throw-back to the french New Wave films of the 60s. Men in matte, pastel trenchcoats and sunglasses assassinate the dress-shoe-ed man somewhere off-screen. From there, we follow the shoe-shine man who seems to be the consummate image of the picturesque French peasant. He lives down the street from a bakery and raffishly steals a baguette. His wife is sick with a baby or something and he lives in a little cobblestone alleyway.

Anyway, the plot proper starts when he discovers an illegal immigrant boy from Africa and, taking pity on him, gives him shelter. The film marries the thorny political issue of illegal immigration with the breezy airs of French cinema, so in love with the underdog, so in love with crimes of compassion. The film is fairly subversive in its way, but perversely tries hard not to be offensive or shocking. The African boy moves about almost catatonically, usually soulfully staring at whoever's around. The shoe-shine man blusters and bluffs with great self-assurance. Everything's very adorable.

There's a strongly Wes Anderson-esque feel of childishness and nostalgia about the film. Flat colors dominate the decor. The heavy stylization of the film renders everything very twee and cute but also very safe. We know, for example, that this is not the sort of movie where it turns out that someone is beating their wife. A man died in the intro, but it happens antiseptically off-screen. There is even a rock concert which is almost climactically adorable.

This is a nice film. It's the sort of film you take home and show your mother. It's progressive but not aggressively so. It's sweet without being treacly. It's about as challenging and edgy as a butter mint. It's not boring, mind you. Indeed most of its flourishes payed off for me. It reminded me of Waking Ned Devine or Bagdad Cafe; a delightful but essentially toothless film.