Ricky

It would be risible if Ozon’s hand didn’t remain so steady and confident throughout, all the way up to a complicatedly upbeat conclusion that recreates the Christian Annunciation with the straightest of faces.

The frisson between the two halves is intriguing for a while, but it leaves the film feeling adrift.

Parables are stories about other people that help us live our own lives. The problem with the French film Ricky is that the lesson of the parable is far from clear, and nobody is likely to encounter this situation in his own life.

The deeper Ricky plunges into allegory, the shakier its grasp of the material.

Ozon's fractured-working-class-family magical realism, liberally adapted from Rose Tremain's short story, "Moth," works best in specific moments.

Ricky is a bold, ambitious hybrid that only intermittently reaches the heights toward which it audaciously aims.

Imagine a quietly creepy "X-Men" prequel -- in French -- and you have this odd little parable.