Hedgehog, The

aka: Le hérisson
France 2009, 100 minutes
Dir. Mona Achache
In French, Japanese with English subtitles
Rating: [M]
Genres: Foreign Cinema, Comedy, Drama

Topics: Precocious, Problem Child.

Feat. Josiane Balasko, Togo Igawa, Garance Le Guillermic, Anne Brochet, Ariane Ascaride

Aroview: Charming, melancholy comedy in which a precocious, jaded 11-year-old from a well-to-do family decides to commit suicide on her 12th birthday, though an unlikely romance threatens to derail her plans.

Constantly armed with a video-camera, her curiosity leads her to engage with her apartment building's prickly, full-figured janitor, who in turn finds herself receiving attention from a kindly Japanese widower who has just moved into the building. Perhaps too wilfully romantic for some tastes, yet the tone is assured, production trimmings delightful, and the humble hedgehog proves a satisfying, unique metaphor upon which to pin maxims about love, friendship, death, and class politics.