Synopsis
Paloma is a serious and highly articulate but deeply bored 11-year-old who has decided to kill herself on her 12th birthday. Fascinated by art and philosophy, she questions and documents her life and immediate circle, drawing trenchant and often hilarious observations on the world around her. But as her appointment with death approaches, Paloma finally meets some kindred spirits in her building's grumpy janitor and an enigmatic, elegant neighbor, both of whom inspire Paloma to question her rather pessimistic outlook on life.
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Cast
- Josiane BalaskoRenée Michel
- Garance Le GuillermicPaloma Josse
- Togo IgawaKakuro Ozu
- Anne BrochetSolange Josse
- Ariane AscarideManuela Lopez
- Wladimir YordanoffPaul Josse
- Sarah Le PicardColombe Josse
- Jean-Luc PorrazJean-Pierre, tramp
- Mona HeftreMrs. Meurisse
- Gisèle CasadesusMrs. de Broglie
Recommendations
- 88
Orlando Sentinel
The sweet, the comic and the tragic blend together most agreeably in the winsome French romance The Hedgehog. - 80
The New York Times
At times The Hedgehog suggests a Gallic "Harold and Maude," with an intellectual gloss as it celebrates the life force passed from an older generation to a younger. But its concept of vitality isn't the popular cliché of kicking up your heels, breathing deeply and gorging on ice cream. It is an aesthete's ideal of pursuing moments of ecstatic perfection in art and companionship. - 80
New York Daily News
Writer/director Mona Achache adapts Muriel Barbery's novel, "The Elegance of the Hedgehog," loosely but skillfully, creating an intimate portrait that resounds with empathy. Comedy and tragedy are given equal respect, and even the quietest souls are valued. - 75
New York Post
Gentle, tender and very French, The Hedgehog is cinematic poetry -- too bad about that prosaic plotting. - 65
NPR
Perhaps the ending worked better in the book, Muriel Barbery's The Elegance of the Hedgehog, which sold more than a million copies in France. Certainly this adaptation, Mona Achache's directorial debut, is a very bookish movie. - 60
Boxoffice Magazine
Contrary to all of my bitter nudging, I found both sweet and charming. It's just me: I hate precocious children. - 50
Village Voice
Watching Balasko, a veteran actor-writer-director in thick-browed, frumped-up drag, sitting at her kitchen table reading Tolstoy and nibbling on dark chocolate with a cat in her lap, is one of The Hedgehog's purest delights. At the very least, it provides relief from the prating of that junior wisenheimer. - 50
The Hollywood Reporter
Although the conceit of an ever-so-erudite child palling around with an exceedingly wise concierge might be workable in a novel, cinema tends to realism, and Achache is too much of a novice to bring it off. The cuteness grates, and the setups and philosophizing are generally unconvincing.
