Full Description
Nono is a 13-year-old boy on the brink of his bar mitzvah with a rich imagination and quite the knack for getting into trouble. Inspector Jacob Feierberg is his father and also happens to be the best police inspector in the world. Zohara, his mother, died when Nono was an infant and remains a mystery to him. Inspector Feierberg helps Nono hone his powers of observation and deduction, while Gaby—his father’s young, zaftig secretary/girlfriend—fosters Nono’s imagination. Yet Gaby really functions as his second mother telling Nono wild stories about criminals and teaching him to sing along to the songs of famous chanteuse Lola Ciperola (played to perfection by Isabella Rossellini). When one of Nono’s creative hijinks sets off a pyrotechnic chain reaction at a cousin’s bar mitzvah, his father sends him to visit Uncle Schmuel, a shrink. Nono discovers a letter from his father on the train, instructing him to meet a secret mentor and fulfill a mission. With the help of master burglar Felix Glick, Nono exits the train, and the two go on the lam in search of the enchanting Lola. Their quest takes them to the French Riviera, where plot twists and turns mirror the twists and turns of the country roads they speed down. Director Vincent Bal’s fast-paced, superbly written feature, based on the popular novel by David Grossman, is a delightful mixture of genres: detective story and coming-of-age tale, with a dose of romance. High production values, a fabulous 1960s soundtrack and a series of chases on trains, scooters, cars and cranes make The Zigzag Kid an endearing tale about identity and following one’s best hunches.
