The best thing about Ricky is no doubt its titular baby character (Arthur Peyret), who’s so breathtakingly adorable that it will turn your heart into a lump of butter. Inspired by novelist Rose Tremain’s short story, this latest from the French enfant terrible (8 femmes, 5x2) begins with Ricky’s extraordinary birth – when working-class single mom Katie (Alexandra Lamy) and her Spanish immigrant co-worker Paco (Sergi López) fall in love at first sight, and then possibly conceive Ricky in a factory washroom right away. Tension in the family quickly mounts as Paco moves in with Katie and her seven-year-old daughter, Lisa (Mélusine Mayance), but it all changes when Ricky starts to… grow wings.

Engaging for the most part, this urban fairytale is unfortunately almost as clueless as the flying baby’s parents, resulting in a casual mishmash of social realism, cutesy baby humour, marriage drama, media circus, and even shades of psychological horror. The last bit is especially puzzling, considering the film’s central focus on the heart-warming nature of family love. While its sporadic use of unsettling music distantly echoes Polanski’s devilish Rosemary’s Baby, Ricky is laden with enough details to suggest that it’s all part of little Lisa’s imagination. Improbable as it sounds, this minor Ozon is a bit like Under The Sand, or Swimming Pool – but with kids.

Edmund Lee

Dir François Ozon, Category IIA, 90 mins, opens Thursday 9