L'hérisson (Mona Achache, 2009)

The Hedgehog is based on the rather wonderful novel The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery to a degree that its makers modestly claim is loose, although it actually follows the structural elements of the source very closely. The modesty is probably due to the director having to adopt alternative filmic approaches to depicting the interior monologues of its characters, namely some animated inserts and the device of having the precocious 12-year-old's added narrative explained by her making a video of her life. Both work inobtrusively enough, with the animation in particular adding a zing that would otherwise be missed with the loss of her and the other principal's poignant private musings.
It's a simple enough set-up: the suicide-plotting daughter of a posh Parisian family is cynical and cutting beyond her years, and 'the hedgehog' is sensitive and intelligent beyond the allowed limits of her station as the dumpy concierge of their apartment building. A friendship forms between the two through the arrival of a bridging agent, a cultured Japanese man, and the mutual realisation of what the three have in common in contrast to the shallowness of the society immediately around them.
Despite Achache's best efforts, the sum total has to fall short of the sheer poetry of the novel, unable to convey all the thought contained therein. Taken in its own right, however, it's far more emotionally involving than most recent French dramas revolving around class and angst, and helped considerably by some astute casting.

7/10