88% The Hedgehog

All Critics (65) | Top Critics (14) | Fresh (57) | Rotten (8) | DVD (1)

A satisfying emotional experience.

This a movie with such a light, stylish touch, it makes no claims to profundity and is a sweetly hopeful experience.

"The Hedgehog" is a treat: a movie that's smart, grown-up, wry and deeply moving.

Enchantment will go a long way toward overcoming implausibility, but there's not enough of the former here - and far too much of the latter.

What does happen seems to happen in slow motion.

An enchanting grown-up fairy tale about the redemptive power of love.

A French drama that finds its power in the little moments.

Le Guillermic is fine in this calm comedy of subverted exteriors and expectations, but it's the remarkably unpretentious -- earthy, even -- Balasko who anchors Achache's adaptation.

... it's Josiane Balasko that makes it work.

"The Hedgehog" sneaks up on you with its heartfelt storytelling and sophisticated wit.

Balasko's performance is the highlight, as she breathes believable inner life into the stock character of the lonely, embittered widow.

A darkly comedic broadside aimed at stuffy French elitism.

Portrayed by Balasko with nuance, grace, intelligence and humor, Renee is a quietly terrific portrait of a deserving, dynamic woman who has long gone unnoticed.

With her film, Achache achieves a rare thing: She is faithful to the spirit of a terrific book but finds ways to make it come alive on film.

A reminder that, sometimes, the movies can get a beloved book exactly right.

A charming performance by young Garance Le Guillermic proves key to the success of Mona Achache's adaptation of the popular Muriel Barbery novel The Elegance of the Hedgehog.

It's a brisk, touching comedy with a deliberately shocking climax and attractive performances from Josiane Balasko and Togo Igawa as the two people who change Paloma's understanding of life.

'Hedgehog' Bristles with French Charm

It's some feat for this gentle French drama to overcome the device of an impossibly precocious, camcorder-wielding 11-year-old narrator (Garance Le Guillermic), who has secret plans to commit suicide on her next birthday.

This film's main attraction is the terrific Balasko. She is so watchable that one almost forgets about the awful Paloma and her video camera.

The fate of a goldfish provides a subplot in a film strong on tender characterisation and rather wishful about the remedies for loneliness.

An affecting, watchable tale.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_hedgehog/

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