The main character is a girl who feels trapped in her upper-class, politically important, generally high-strung family and deals with it by filming their every move with a video camera her governmental-minister father gives her, while whispering a merciless voice-over as the camera records. It's great to see a movie about people's secret lives bringing them together, the endless creativity that follows from watching what actually happens, and completely improbable friendships mattering more than anything else. None of the characters ever really leave their various apartments in a big building in a wealthy part of Paris, but quite a lot of ordinary and very entertaining things happen. The film is about people adopting each other across social barriers--but that doesn't quite capture it either. This is the French version of feel-good, which means it stays intellectual while being the opposite of cynical about whether people can connect with each other. I really liked it.
Review of The Hedgehog
