Légitime défense (2011)
Directed by Pierre Lacan

Film Review

Légitime défense is yet another attempt in recent years by an inexperienced French filmmaker to try and relive the glory years of the film policier, only to end up looking like an indulgent and mostly uninspired retread of a genre that looks well and truly past its sell-by date.  This particular excursion into the carcass-strewn abyss of noir mediocrity is from first-time director Pierre Lacan, an established actor whose credits include a small role in Betrand Tavernier's Laissez-passer (2002).  By adapting Alain Wagneur's novel Terminus Plage, Lacan shows some promise as a film director but he is perhaps far too in awe of earlier masters of the thriller genre to succeed in imposing his own voice on the film.  His debut feature would have had greater impact if it wasn't such an obvious homage to American and British thrillers of the 1970s, jam-packed with none too subtle references to such films as Mike Hodges' Get Carter (1971) and Sam Peckinpah's The Getaway (1972).

Lacan's over-enthusiastic attempts to breathe new life into a flagging genre include somewhat gratuitous over-use of the flash-forward, which has the unfortunate effect of rendering a fairly mundane plot tediously convoluted and preventing the audience from engaging with the characters at more than a superficial level.  Some of these inserts include baffling underwater shots whose significance only become apparent right at the end of the film - it's hard to fathom why the director thought his film would benefit from such self-conscious artistry.  Uneven and formulaic though the film is, Lacan does succeed in creating a threatening mood of gradually increasing intensity, although this culminates in a ridiculously over-the-top denouement that makes Peckinpah look like a master of understatement.

The film's central failing is a hackneyed script that is content with churning out a recycled plot whilst almost totally overlooking the characterisation.  As the central villain, Olivier Gourmet was either totally miscast or else just completely uninspired by the script.  His performance in this film (if you dare call it that) probably rates as the worst of his entire career.  Not only does he fail to convey any real sense of menace, he just comes across as a third rate pantomime villain, and even when he does something unmentionable with a baby (it's hard to top the shock value of an earlier scene in which a cat gets its brains beaten in with an ashtray so Lacan inevitably ends up in Grand Guignol territory) Gourmet fails to be more frightening than a tatty cardboard cut-out with a slight anger management problem.

Claude Brasseur is just as badly served by the script but he at least makes a go of things, and his presence brings the gritty noir gravitas that is so patently lacking elsewhere in the cast.  Thankfully, Jean-Paul Rouve is on hand to bring a smidgen of character depth to the film, looking amazingly at home in the uncustomary role of a noir hero -  just as he would in Gérald Hustache-Mathieu's far more respectable Poupoupidou (2011).  Rouve claims he grew his moustache for the film as a tribute to Patrick Dewaere, the iconic French actor who headlined some of the best French thrillers of the 1970s.  If this is true it underscores what is fundamentally wrong with the film - it is just too in thrall to the old classics.  With a slightly better script, the likeable lead actor would have had no difficulty making Légitime défense a gripping thriller, but afflicted with Lacan's half-baked mass of genre clichés he has an uphill task holding on to his own reputation.  To be fair to its author, there are some sporadic moments of excellence in this film, but these are too few and far between to make it worth the effort.

Film Synopsis

Benoît is an unassuming thirty-something who leads a happy and trouble-free existence with his young family.  All this is to change on the day that his father, a cop-turned-private detective, mysteriously disappears, leaving behind him a trashed office and a host of unanswered questions.  It appears that some ruthless armed gangsters are intent on recovering a large stash of drugs and Benoît is the only one who stands in their way.  Unaware of his father's dark secrets, Benoît is soon drawn into a deadly game of cat and mouse with a merciless adversary.  He quickly realises that he must fight back if he is to save his own skin whilst protecting those who are nearest to him, including his recently born baby...