Magique!
Philippe Muyl


The story: Ten-year-old Tommy (Louis Dussol) lives with his mother Betty (Marie Gillain) on a honey farm in rural Canada. He has never known his father and imagines him to be an astronaut.
When a kindly doctor tells him that his mother is suffering from melancholy, he is determined to cheer her up. He invites a travelling circus to their farm and embarks on a search for something or someone that would make her laugh.


With Magique!, French writer-director Philippe Muyl is out to prove that the well-received The Butterfly was no mere sleight of hand.
While he once again takes on a familiar subject matter – a young child learning the lessons of life – he also takes the film in a different direction.
Inspired by the number he wrote for the closing credits of The Butterfly, Muyl has included a lot more songs here.
But instead of having the actors belt them out in Broadway-musical style, the singing here is low-key and naturalistic.
It is part of the charm and whimsy with which Muyl imbues this simple story of a boy who just wants to make his mother laugh.
The film-maker seems to have a knack for working with children and the bright-eyed Dussol is endearing as he earnestly and doggedly embarks on his quest. When the travelling circus sets up shop on their farm, a colourful cast of characters befriends Tommy.
While the idea of kooky big-top folks borders on the cliched, the proceedings are handled with a light touch and are too good-natured to be grating, especially when set against the gorgeously coloured backdrop of rural Canada.
Tommy’s search proves to be more daunting than first imagined. At the same time, a romance begins to develop between Betty and the clown Baptiste (singer-songwriter Cali in his first big-screen outing).
Cali and Gillain, the Belgian actress who turned heads with her debut in the comedy My Father The Hero (1991), share an easy chemistry and make the connection between two lonely people touchingly believable.
When Tommy stumbles on both of them talking in bed, he is upset, not by the fact that his mother is with someone, but by the revelation that his father was a musician.
Ah, the worldliness of the French, even at such a tender age.
Magique! is a movie for children but it is mercifully free of the condescension family films often strangely display towards their target audience. And adults too might just find themselves falling under the spell of Muyl’s appealing escapade.
(ST)