Le Convoyeur (2004)
Directed by Nicolas Boukhrief

Film Review

Le Convoyeur is a strangely alluring film which manages to combine elements of social drama, existentialist thriller and action movie, although not as successfully as it perhaps might.  It's the third and probably best film to date from French director Nicolas Boukhrief, one-time journalist and former assistant to the acclaimed Polish director Andrzej Zulawski.

The film boasts some particularly convincing and intense performances, notably from Albert Dupontel and Jean Dujardin - the former brooding and sinister, the latter engaging but ultimately grotesque.  It is the ambiguity and dark aura of mystery that surrounds Dupontel and Dujardin's characters which is perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the film.

The combination of some unpolished naturalistic acting and a chillingly bleak neo-documentary style of cinematography gives Le Convoyeur a biting realism and a mood of pessimism which makes it compelling and yet distinctly uncomfortable to watch.  Whilst the film's final action sequence is executed with great flair, its ultra-violent self-indulgence makes it just too reminiscent of the latest breed of hard-boiled American thriller and it is this gratuitous spectacle of gore which somewhat undermines the film's impact, coherence and credibility.

Film Synopsis

Vigilante is a small French company that delivers money in armoured vans.  Over the past year it has had a hard time, with three armed robberies that have cost the lives of several members of staff.  Now the company faces a takeover by a bigger American company, with the result that its employees fear for their jobs.  No one knows what to make of the company's latest recruit, Alexandre Demarre.  A solitary and secretive man, Demarre soon gains the mistrust of his colleagues, in whom he shows an uncanny interest.  Living alone in a small hotel room, the cost of which exceeds his miserly earnings, Demarre is a man of mystery.  He clearly has his own motives for working for Vigilante, but what could these be?  Is he a crook, a cop or is he just what he appears to be - a man on his uppers desperately in need of work?