French/125 Minutes/Not Rated
I happened to find this little gem on the shelf of my local Blockbuster and admittedly I was struck by the cover. It's a profile shot of Daniel Auteuil with a sharp pointed font shouting “The Last Deadly Mission.” I liked that the guy on the cover didn't look like an airbrushed big named 30 something. When I figured out it was a French film, everything made sense.
I'm going to take part of this review to rail against Blockbuster's marketing of their Exclusive films like this one. The front cover you see implies a dangerous thriller or action film. The back cover says:
“Where Justice Ends... Vengeance Begins. An out of control cop dangerously close to the edge is the only one who can protect a young woman from the murderous insanity of a serial killer. Destroyed by the death of his wife and child, Detective Louis Schneider (Daniel Auteuil) is lost until he agrees to protect Justine (Olivia Bonamy) from the madman who forced her to watch him kill her mother and father. Tough, gritty, and violent, this dark, exciting, true crime story is based on writer and director Olivier Marchal's real-life experiences as a street cop.”
Normally I wouldn't quote something so long but I do so to say this: the back cover does not describe the movie accurately AT ALL. In fact it barely describes the last act, ignoring the preceeding 100 minutes all together and his wife is NOT DEAD! There is no agreement to protect the “damsel in distress” and it's a true crime story in the same way that any Law and Order episode is, which is to say, crime happens, so it's based on a true story.
You would think from the cover and the description that this is a cop/victim thriller in the vein of Blink or maybe Jagged Edge, etc. Maybe it will be another titillating bit of exploitation, some T&A and some good gore effects, right? Nothing could be further from the truth. What Marchal provides here is not a thriller but a character study of a cop who is slowly dying on the inside and the slimy world he inhabits. It's closest analogue in American cinema (or any recent cinema) would be Abel Ferrera's Bad Lieutenant or perhaps Takashi Kitano's Fireworks (Hana-Bi).
Much like Keitel in Bad Lieutenant, Daniel Auteiul plays Louis as a man who has been beaten up by the world and is content to just wallow in his misery, going through the motions of life. But Louis is not a man in search of redemption or even considering it. In the films opening lines he says “God is a son of a bitch. Some day I will kill him.” This is as close as we get to his true interior life.
Marchal's characters are enigmas to us, but not to themselves. Gazes between characters are filled with knowledge and history, most of which is left for us to infer. Flashbacks are disjointed, shown in brief glimpses, ever longer, but never revealing all there is to see. We are never allowed the details or to be inside the character's head or motivations.
Just as we are never allowed to experience the interior lives of the characters, Marchal's directing choices seem determined to keep us at a distance (with a few rare exceptions). Even with such lurid material as a serial killer, dirty cops, and sexual misdeeds, the shots are reserved but not hesitant. Nothing is stylized and the sex and violence aren't used for titillation. If anything this respectful treatment of death and the human condition is what makes the violence that much more real.
For example, the first crime scene is presented with little lead up. The men walk in the room and see an older woman, naked and covered in blood laying on a bed. There is no shock, no longing shots of a nude body. Rather it all has a rather stark feel to it, much like anyone else. Go to work, check out the in box (ah, dead body number 5), get started. The film is striking in its unwillingness to engage us on a visceral level and instead lets us think about the characters and their actions.
The story is essentially about incredibly damaged and beaten down people who have given up trying to make a difference. The cops are nearly all dirty and the clean ones are portrayed as slaves to the bureaucracy. The victims are all shattered, if not paralyzed by the evil that has exploded into their lives. Then there are the villains themselves who are just as evil as you might expect (or not expect).
Even in the final reel when the inevitable occurs it is not tinged with rage or catharsis but is shown rather matter-of-factly without extra fanfare, quick cuts or loud music. There is no monologuing. The characters never justify themselves to us or in many cases even to each other. The final showdown features no dialogue at all, just a brief action which is not dwelt upon.
This is a rare film that denies us the visceral catharsis but in doing so gives us something more. We are given ample time to observe and reflect, seeing the tragedies that unfold at a distance. The sympathy we have for Louis is born out of his commitment to doing the right thing. In the end it is his sense that the scales can be balanced, but at a high price, that leads his character's arc. Louis does not justify what he is does and neither does the director. Is what he doing futile? Does he care? That's for us to decide. Recommended.
NOT RATED: Mature Audiences, contains Strong Language, Sex/Nudity, Bloody Violence and Thematic Elements.
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