Ricky

Gallic director {|François Ozon|}'s idiosyncratic Ricky represents an attempt to weld together two polar-opposite and seemingly incompatible genres: kitchen-sink realistic drama and high-concept {|Spielbergian|} fantasy. Loosely inspired by a Rose Tremain short story, the tale opens on a council estate just east of Paris (in the Seine-et-Marne), where single mom Katie ({|Alexandra Lamy|}) ekes out a low-key and fairly miserable existence. She earns her keep as a factory worker while glumly attempting to raise her seven-year-old daughter, Lisa ({|Mélusine Mayance|}), on the side. Circumstances shift dramatically when Katie falls into an affair with a Spanish colleague, Paco ({|Sergi López|}), but no one can guess just how dramatically. Together they conceive a son whom they name {|Ricky|}, who has a physiological quirk that makes him a freak of nature, draws a considerable amount of attention from the press, and creates all kinds of impracticalities for the parents.