User Reviews

Maxime, a successful luxury car dealer and his partner Simon are awarded a prestigious award for the way they have conducted their business. Maxime, is the epitome of the man who has everything: money, success and a beautiful wife. When Simon is murdered by Finnish mafiosi, Maxime is threatened to pay up for something he has no clue he owes the criminals. Thus, the problems for Maxime, an honest man, begin to get the best of him.

Maxime turns to his two brothers, Greg and Abel, who are willing to help him. Michele, the trophy wife, is more afraid for whatever the criminals can do to her and the life she has enjoyed so far. The criminals prevail in taking Maxime to their Northern country for the conclusion of the story, in which an enraged Maxime has had enough with that thugs that have kidnapped him, All he wants is to end it all, but meets the fury of the beastly criminal intent in making him pay for Simon's sins.

A French noir co-written and directed by Dominic Blanc. This is an essentially French thriller with a promising beginning that does not keep its promise. Most of the blame is in the screenplay with a lot of ideas that do not pan out. One feels for the excellent cast put together for this venture, mainly Francois Cluzet, the great Oliver Gourmet, sadly misused in the production, Jonathan Zaccai, and Louise Borgoin.

I am amazingly deceived by this french thriller. I expected much much more from this tale of three brothers in hard struggle against northern European mafia. The characters are convincing although. Cluzet, Zacchaï and Gourmet give here flawless performances. But this story stinks. There are may unbelievable things I can't forget.

For instance, how the hell a guy can run like a rabbit, only two days after being wounded in the stomach with a couple of bullets?

And how a man with no experience of weapons can kill a person at 150 meters, in the forehead?

And there are many more details totally unacceptable.

And above all, (SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS...)

I HATE CHEESY HAPPY ENDINGS.

Forget this crap.

Spoilers! There are some holes in the plot and the ending is somewhat disappointing. One has the feeling that radical decisions have been made in the editing room. The acting is really good and the cinematography is excellent. This story is a genre piece that could have been written by Patricia Highsmith. The characters are unsympathetic and greedy blunderers whose actions are irrational and stupid with serious consequences for innocent people. Think Simple Plan or Fargo. The script could have contained more explanations of the motives that drive the characters but that may have been purposely left out; it is somewhat obvious Maximes success is partly based on crime as is alluded to in the scene where he is talking to his business partner after finding the money in the car.