This was probably the best action film of 2010, which is somewhat surprising considering it's a mid-budget French movie with a lean script and actors unknown to English-speaking audiences. Despite the possible handicaps, this pared-down thriller turns out to have the vitality and excitement of one of the Greengrass Bourne flicks, and it's very nearly as good.
The storyline is simple but intricate: the archetypal everyday family man is drawn into a complicated conspiracy of murder and betrayal when he saves the life of one of his patients following a murder attempt. His wife is thus kidnapped, and he spends the rest of the movie in a desperate race against time to save her. It sounds like TAKEN but it takes a much more realistic, thriller-style approach rather than going for the all out action style; for the record I like both films equally well.
Gilles Lellouche is expertly sweaty as the ultra-anxious guy driven to desperate extremes by the situation, but the film really belongs to Roschdy Zem as the Algerian criminal who starts out as an innocent, becomes a bad guy, and finally turns into something much, much more and better besides. His character avoids cliché throughout and he gives a reserved, oddly touching performance despite his character's rough, violent ways.
This is a short film (80 minutes odd) and it's action packed, with the action mostly taking the form of pulse-pounding chase sequences that support and enhance the thriller aspects of the story. It starts off well, drawing you into the lives of the characters before letting rip with the suspense, and from that point in it never lets up until the ferocious climax. It truly is a great movie, and a second watch close on the heels of the first merely confirms my first impressions.
The storyline is simple but intricate: the archetypal everyday family man is drawn into a complicated conspiracy of murder and betrayal when he saves the life of one of his patients following a murder attempt. His wife is thus kidnapped, and he spends the rest of the movie in a desperate race against time to save her. It sounds like TAKEN but it takes a much more realistic, thriller-style approach rather than going for the all out action style; for the record I like both films equally well.
Gilles Lellouche is expertly sweaty as the ultra-anxious guy driven to desperate extremes by the situation, but the film really belongs to Roschdy Zem as the Algerian criminal who starts out as an innocent, becomes a bad guy, and finally turns into something much, much more and better besides. His character avoids cliché throughout and he gives a reserved, oddly touching performance despite his character's rough, violent ways.
This is a short film (80 minutes odd) and it's action packed, with the action mostly taking the form of pulse-pounding chase sequences that support and enhance the thriller aspects of the story. It starts off well, drawing you into the lives of the characters before letting rip with the suspense, and from that point in it never lets up until the ferocious climax. It truly is a great movie, and a second watch close on the heels of the first merely confirms my first impressions.