The Hedgehog (Le hérisson)

Despite all of its failures The Hedgehog is a pleasant watch. Mona Achache, for her first film, has done a commendable job in adapting Muriel Barbery’s best-selling novel for the screen. The film remains broadly faithful to the events of the book: we follow the interactions between the inhabitants of a Parisian apartment-block through the eyes of the eleven year old Paloma (Garance Le Guillermic) and the janitor Renée (Josiane Balasko, excellent as ever).

The plot builds on the contrast between Renée, who seems grumpy and antisocial but is in fact an intellectual and an avid reader, and the owners of the luxurious apartments – including Paloma’s family – who do not notice Renée and follow a vacuous if wealthy lifestyle. Paloma realises this, and sets out to commit suicide in order to avoid ending up like her parents. This is all changed, however, by the arrival of a new neighbour, the wizened Mr. Ozu.

The film is essentially about prejudice and social stereotyping, but its treatment of this stock theme is in itself stereotyped: the despised, dowdy janitor turns out to be wiser than all her rich employers. Paloma also gets a lesson out of this, and the moral order is restored. The literary and philosophical allusions, so plentiful in the book, are confined to Anna Karenina, and are, like the rest, rather unsubtle: Ozu’s cats are called Kitty and Levin; Renée’s cat is called Leo. The film often yields to trite sentimentality, and the impression it leaves – apart from the surprising final twist – is one of yet another feel-good movie.

REVIEWED AT CAMEO