RICKY
Written & Directed by François Ozon, based on the short story “Moth,” by Rose Tremain
Produced by Claudie Ossard & Chris Bolzli
Released by IFC Films
French with English subtitles
France/Italy. 89 min. Not Rated
With Alexandra Lamy, Sergi Lopez, Mélusine Mayance & Arthur Peyret 
 

Many parents consider their children angels sent from heaven. Ricky takes this supposition literally. Ricky is the result of the relationship between two French factory workers. When single mother Katie (Alexandra Lamy) meets Spanish transplant Paco (Sergi Lopez), sparks fly. A quick encounter in the employee bathroom and a token dinner date later, the two begin living together, much to the chagrin of Katie’s young daughter, Lisa (Mélusine Mayance). With the birth of a son, Ricky (baby Arthur Peyret), their new family seems complete. But the pressures of parenthood soon tear the family apart, and it is not until Ricky grows a pair of angel’s wings (no lie) that the breach begins to be healed.

An allegory, a fable, a saccharine family tale, Ricky takes the ordinary occurrence of the birth of a child to new metaphorical heights. Sometimes bordering on the ludicrous (watching a baby flap around a supermarket like a drunken bird is more ridiculous than miraculous), the movie is grounded by its female stars. Lamy, with a quicksilver smile and quiet beauty, paints a realistic picture of a woman juggling the pressures of single motherhood. Yet it is from Mélusine Mayance that Ozon coaxes out the best performance of the film. Her Lisa, a mixture of shyness, wariness, and loneliness is a subtle portrait made up of half glances, downturns of the mouth, and things unsaid. Watching her wake her mother up in the morning and then trot out to the kitchen to start warming milk for breakfast is ordinary enough. It is Lisa’s youth, and the solemn acceptance in her eyes of a task that, by all rights, belongs to her parent, that gives the scene a touch of the bittersweet.  

Though Ozon does have some over-the-top touches (the background music in some scenes made me wonder if I was watching Rosemary’s Baby: After the Birth), Ricky is a sweet enough treat for the holidays. If it were set in America, it would assuredly be unbearable. As a product of France, it comes off as a little quirky, if overly romantic (there’s a winged infant, but hey, they smoke with such sophistication). In the end, Ricky is about a family coming together despite the odds. Single parenthood, philandering boyfriends, prying neighbors, and economic pressures are daunting obstacles that would take a miracle to overcome. In Ricky, that miracle takes the form of a flying baby. Lisa Bernier
December 18, 2009