Mike (2011)
Directed by Lars Blumers

Film Review

The first feature-length film from German director Lars Blumers is a quirky 'loser flick' that takes its inspiration from a real-life incident that took place in Alsace in 2005.  Rather than opt for a gritty social drama in the manner of the Dardenne brothers, Blumers adopts a completely different tack, garnishing his film's grim social themes with layers of downbeat humour that occasionally veers into the absurd.  The film's setting, an ugly little French town in Alsace on the border with Germany and Switzerland, emphasises the marginal status of the main protagonist Mike and his equally rudderless buddies - it is also the town where the real-life Mike was senselessly gunned down by trigger-happy Swiss police for stealing a car.

The film's juvenile delinquent lead is played by Canadian actor Marc-André Grondin, famous for playing a similar rebel role in Jean-Marc Vallée's film C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005).  Grondin's natural air of layabout insouciance makes Mike an instantly likeable hero, an arrested child who lives in a world of his own, unable to see anything wrong in the criminal scrapes he gets himself into.  It is Mike's innocence that makes him so sympathetic and also so tragic - he suffers from a kind of social dyslexia, unable to read the rules that must be adhered to in order that a civilised society can function.  One of the film's strengths is that it forces us to see things from Mike's child-like perspective, something that makes the film's brutal ending all the more shocking.

Mike's head-in-the-clouds naivety contrasts with the down-to-earth mundanity of his girlfriend, convincingly portrayed by Christa Theret.  Having been revealed in Lou Doillon's Et toi t'es sur qui? (2007), Theret has become a favourite of the latest breed of French film auteurs, distinguishing herself in such film as Emmanuelle Millet's La Brindille (2011) and Christophe Sahr's Voie rapide (2012).  It is Theret's naturalistic presence, so powerful in the film's tragic denouement, that gives the film its hard realist core, which the comedy arising from Mike's antics finds it increasingly difficult to conceal as the film progresses.   In contrast to Theret's Sandy, who can see all too well what is coming her way,  Mike is as innocent as a sheep being led to the slaughterhouse.

The talented supporting cast includes Eric Elmosnino - the actor who played Serge Gainsbourg so brilliantly in Gainsbourg (Vie héroïque) (2010).  As a sympathetic cop who is constantly distracted by his problematic love-life, Elmosnino gets some of the funniest scenes but he also turns in another convincing character portrayal.  Like Mike, his character appears to have only a tenuous grip on reality, and the same applies for pretty well every male character in the film, including Sandra's absurdly hyper-tolerant father.  It is this colourful ensemble of off-the-wall secondary characters that gives Mike much of its eccentric charm and poetry, preventing it from being just another run-of-the-mill loser flick.  Showing flair and originality aplenty on both the writing and directing fronts, Lars Blumers makes an impressive feature debut - another promising young auteur to watch out for.

Film Synopsis

Contrary to what you might think, Mike and his tearaway friends Fred and J-C have plenty to occupy themselves in Kembs, a backwater town in Alsace on the border with Switzerland and Germany.  Distractions in this part of the world may be few and far between, but these resourceful twenty year olds are never stuck for something to do.  When they are not playing football or biking, they are concocting plans in their private den.  Mike has his own peculiar passion: motoring.  It is an obsession that goes back several years, and Mike likes nothing better than to coast along in a car that he couldn't possibly afford to buy.  Being a good boy, he never steals cars.  He only borrows them.

One day, Mike is fortunate enough to come across a Porsche.  Getting behind the wheel of this lovely lady is the closest he has managed to get to Heaven - so far.  It is whilst driving this dream vehicle that Mike gets to meet Sandy, who appears to be as seduced by the car as he was when he first saw it.  Sandy takes an instant liking to the car-obsessed young man, and he is far from immune to her obvious charms.  Could this be the beginning of a new departure for Mike?  Sandy's arrival in his life is about to upend his adolescent certainties and cause him to reflect on what the future holds for him, now that he has become an adult...