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.
© James Travers 2015
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
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...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.