Review: Bigbug

Image courtesy of Netflix.

Much like Terry Gilliam and Tim Burton, French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet is a filmmaker whose pictures are often elaborate fantasies in which every frame is filled with images that couldn't be mistaken for the work of any other director. And much like those directors, Jeunet's body of work has seen its hits and misses. At his best, Jeunet's work can be bizarre concoctions like "Delicatessen" or "The City of Lost Children" or, his career high,  the dazzling romantic comedy "Amelie."

So, I'm disappointed to say that his latest and first feature in a decade, "Bigbug," is not in that same company. The film is bursting with the manic energy and quirks one might expect in a Jeunet film, but it's missing something - perhaps, a reason for being or characters to whom we can relate. Instead, it settles on broad farce and is strangely confined to a setting that becomes less compelling as time wears on.

The film is set at some point in the future, and people have become so accustomed to living with robots that when the androids begin to take over, they hardly seem to notice. In the film, Elsa Zylberstein is a woman who has invited her new boyfriend (Stephane De Groodt) and his teenage son (Helie Thonnat) for dinner, where they meet her teenage daughter (Marysole Fertard).

However, her ex-husband (Youssef Hajdi) and his new lover/secretary (Claire Chust) happen to drop by while on their way to a tropical vacation. Add to the mix a neighbor (Jeunet regular Isabelle Nanty) who comes searching for her cloned dog. Zylberstein's character has a live-in robotic maid (Claude Perron) and several other smaller robots who help with household chores.

Just as all of these characters have assembled in the home, it becomes apparent - via images seen on TV - that robots have taken over the government, and humans are being made to be subservient. To continuously emphasize this point, we witness clips of some type of vapid reality show in which humans must debase themselves at the behest of their robotic overlords.

For much of the film's running time, the stakes seem pretty low - the air conditioning won't come on, then once it does the humans suffer near Arctic temperatures; then, the various assortment of humans in the home bicker over their relationships and try to figure a way out of the home, which has locked them all in. The drama finally increases when a sinister male robot shows up to inspect their home, and the humans must use their wits to foil him.

Some of Jeunet's previous films were particularly involving, such as the wartime drama "A Very Long Engagement" or the lovely, bursting-with-energy romance "Amelie." One of the biggest problems with "Bigbug" is that the group of people who are all stuck in the house are various shades of irritating. In some cases - especially the ditzy secretary character - this is obviously intentional. Also, their various dramas aren't that compelling.

The one element that saves "Bigbug" slightly is Jeunet's frenetic visual style and occasional bursts of absurd humor, though as a farce the picture doesn't exactly say anything new about our enslavement to technology or tackle it in a manner that's particularly clever. 

While "Bigbug" may not be a bad film, it's merely an example of a filmmaker with singular abilities not using them on material that rises to his talent level. It's been a while since we've seen a Jeunet film - and, hopefully, we'll see another before long that's better than this one.