My Life as a Courgette

Plot

Icare lives with his mother, who has become an alcoholic because Icare's father abandoned the family. One day when his mom comes after him in a drunken rage, Icare accidentally pushes her down the stairs, causing her death. Later on, Icare makes a deposition to Police Officer Raymond. He informs him that he prefers to be called "Zucchini", his mother's nickname for him. He keeps as souvenirs one of his mom's beer cans and a kite he made with a drawing of his father as a superhero.

Raymond brings Zucchini to an orphanage. Simon, one of the kids there, initially picks on Zucchini and tries to force him to say what happened to his parents. After a fight over the kite, Simon warms up to Zucchini and explains that he's the one who knows about all the kids' backgrounds. He then points out the backstories of the other kids, whose parents are either deceased or, as in Simon's case, are in trouble with the law. Zucchini then tells him about what happened to his own mother.

Zucchini starts regularly sending letters and drawings to Raymond. One day, a new girl named Camille arrives, and Zucchini develops a crush on her at first sight. Simon and Zucchini sneak a look at her files and find that she had witnessed her father murder her mother for cheating on him, and then kill himself. Zucchini and Camille start to bond at a class outing to a snow resort. Zucchini refashions his mom's beer can into a toy boat for Camille.

Camille has an aunt that wants custody of her, but she is a spiteful woman only interested in getting money for taking care of Camille. Raymond plans to spend a weekend with Zucchini on the same days that Camille is supposed to spend with her aunt. So Camille stows away in Raymond's car instead. Raymond reluctantly agrees to bring both kids to the weekend outing. The three have a fun time at an amusement park and return to Raymond's house, where Raymond reveals that he has a son that never talks to him. But that evening, Camille's aunt appears and angrily takes Camille away. A few weeks later comes the custody meeting with the judge. Simon had snuck an MP3 player into the toy boat, and Camille reveals that she's used the player to record her aunt insulting her mom and yelling at her, making her aunt furious at her in front of the judge.

Raymond finally decides to take both Zucchini and Camille in as foster children. Simon is initially angry, but he ultimately coaxes a reluctant Zucchini to go with Raymond. Raymond takes some group photos of the kids before he leaves with Zucchini and Camille. While living with Raymond, Zucchini still writes letters to the kids at the orphanage, maintaining that he, Camille and Raymond are people that still love them all. Zucchini now keeps a group photo of the kids on his kite.

Critical response

The film has a rating of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 46 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "My Life as a Zucchini's silly title and adorable characters belie a sober story whose colorful visuals delight the senses even as it braves dark emotional depths." On Metacritic, the film received a rating of 85 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "Universal acclaim".