Dir. Fred Cavayé, France, 2010, 84 mins – in French with subtitles
Cast: Gilles Lellouche, Roschdy Zem, Gerars Lanvin
Review by Carol Allen
This is a well made thriller from the director of Anything For Her (Pour Elle) and like Cavayé’s previous film it is the story of an ordinary man forced into extraordinary deeds.
Samuel (Lellouche) is a nurse, happily married to Nadia (Elana Anaya), who is expecting their first child. Their serene and well ordered life is turned into a nightmare when Nadia is kidnapped right in front of Samuel. While trying to protect her, he is knocked unconscious. When he comes round, it is to the sound of his phone ringing with a menacing call. In the hospital is gangster Sartet, whom we saw wounded in a motor bike crash in the high octane chase sequence, which opens the film. He is now under police surveillance in his hospital bed. Samuel has just three hours to get Sartet out of the hospital; otherwise he will never see his wife again.
It’s a good plot with plenty of scope for action. The main characters though are not as emotionally engaging as those in Anything For Her, where the husband’s complex journey, as he evolved his plan to spring his wife from jail, drew us into his mind, whereas Samuel is involved in more conventional “gun and chase” action in film terms. The role of his wife Nadia also lacks that same impact – one expects brutality and injustice from criminals, whereas the wife in Anything was subject to brutality and injustice from the state. One does though fear for Nadia and her unborn baby in her ordeal, having learned right at the beginning that her baby is in danger if she doesn’t rest.
Having said that, Lellouche still gives a good performance, while Zem as the gangster he is forced to spring from hospital and who is on the run not only from the police but from the gangster world, has a powerful presence and the relationship that develops between them is an interesting one. Also strong is Gerard Lanvin as the corrupt police officer Werner, playing both ends against the middle, and confirming what appears to be Cavayé’s very grim view of his country’s police system as portrayed in his movies. The action scenes are well staged, the chases and the gunplay are very skilfully edited and there’s a cracker of a sequence which takes place in the metro. But there are times when the action scenes get somewhat repetitive and one yearns for more of the characters’ interaction and less from the action per se. But for lovers of fast paced thrillers, this is a good ‘un, which will probably, like Anything For Her, be picked up and remade by Hollywood.
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