Trafic d'influence
1999 Comedy / Thriller
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Credits
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Summary
Two corrupt politicians, Maxime de Labardière and Gérard Ravanelli, are
each served with a five-year prison sentence for fraud and abuse of their position.
A young female police officer, Sandrine Athan, is tasked with escorting the two men to
prison. Unbeknown to Athan, Labardière is in possession of a CD which
implicates some high-ranking ministers in a financial scandal. Two hit-men are sent to
recover the CD and kill Athan and her two charges. Narrowly surviving a first attack,
Athan perseveres with her errand, which is to ensure that Labardière and Ravanelli
reach their prison intact. Unfortunately, the whole of France seems to have gone
on strike, and the hit-men are not going to give up easily…
Review
One-time writer for French TV’s cult comedy groups Les Nuls, Dominique Farrugia
directed this madcap comedy-thriller – not his best work, but an entertaining divertissement
which offers some good laughs. Any film with Gérard Jugnot is worth watching
and here, as ever, the popular actor gives great entertainment value. By contrast,
Thierry Lhermitte’s contribution is almost negligible and Aure Atika (playing a
testosterone-charged Julie Lescaut caricature on speed) is just plain irritating, a bland
unsympathetic portrayal of a silly two dimensional character (with a gun). Things
are not helped by the idiotic comic book plot, which shows far less sophistication than
you would have expected of Farrugia. Had there been a little more of the satirical
commentary and a lot less of mindless mimicry of American-style action thrillers, this
would have made a far more satisfactory film. Still, the film does have at least
one decent mobile phone joke...
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