Le Hérisson

With this movie, it is not about whether you like one of the characters from the very beginning. In the end, they will grow on you if your heart is wide open, because they all deserve it. This French apartment building hides not only dreamers, but also people who would like to change their lives and are on the verge of it happening. Moreover, you will perceive the whole story revolving around Paloma with both child’s and adult’s eyes, which will totally get to you. I have not seen a movie this human, sad and real for a very long time, and I have to thank user kareen for her recommendation. I really enjoyed it, even though I was rather sad after watching it. Seen based on the Challenge Tour 2015 (03/05/2015)

A film that must be terribly superficial in order to maintain the illusion of some kind of intellectual revolt against bourgeois emptiness. So the intellectual here is the one who is silent, reads books, and occasionally quotes Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina (no philosophy, no Husserl). The best thing about The Hedgehog is its pleasant and laughing form, the acting and the little that the film can give in hints, not in the annoyingly affective commentary of a spoiled brat who needs to get spanked properly. That he won't get spanked is self-evident, because films similar to The Hedgehog need some kind of tragedy to maintain the illusion of fate. Fine, but don't come at me with this forced emotion. Mona Achache has talent, but The Hedgehog is a nice simulation of a wise film. She's neither prickly nor comprehensive. It's just neatly neat, full of clichés and wisdom in a nutshell. (29/11/2010)

An adaptation of the book “The Elegance of the Hedgehog" which unfortunately is about as elegant as an overgrown bull in a china shop. In the places where the novel is sarcastic, cynical and entertainingly philosophical (but with no action or psychology as far as the depth of the characters is concerned), the adaptation... Well, it just takes no stance because, amongst other things, it ignores the first three-quarters of the book. And what remains comes across like a bad parody on cliché-ridden, artsy “social rapprochement" movie. (25/06/2010)