Five years after his first appearance, Jacques Tatis M. Hulot returns with Mon Oncle, a film set along the dividing line between Paris past and its future. Aligned (as is the film) with the former, Hulot lives in a colorful, overpopulated Parisian neighborhood and, lacking employment, spends his days waiting to pick up his adoring nephew from school, and subsequently escorting him to his parents ultra-modern house. Filled with gadgets, some turned on only to impress the neighbors, the house seems designed specifically to frustrate Hulot, who unwittingly disrupts its operations at every opportunity. Concerned about his future, Hulots relatives attempt to find him gainful employment and pair him off with a neighbor, with little success on either front. The nearly dialogue-free film is less concerned with the familys attempts as they relate to an overall plot, and more interested in how they play into its overall scheme of contrasts and allow for Tatis unmistakable sight-and-sound gag set pieces. ~ Keith Phipps, All Movie Guide