26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"An Expert Melodrama", April 11, 2007
This film, the sort of work Graham Greene without condescension called "an entertainment," is a fine achievement within the confines of its modern Parisian police story limits, confines it is intelligent enough not to transgress. However, it does happily push against these confines to the fullest allowable extent, becoming as a result not just a thrilling melodrama, but also a surprisingly affecting one.
At the outset, it spends a fairly liesurely time telling us about the home life of a new cop (Jalil Lespert) eager to make his mark and a veteran of the force who takes him under her wing, a recovering alcoholic and grieving mother (Natalie Baye) anxious to return to police work where she has in the past found some meaning in her otherwise troubled life. Both Lespert and Baye turn in wonderful performances, and they are ably abetted by a supporting cast which has not a single weak link. Further, when things go wrong for these central characters in the latter portion of the film, the liesurely setup has a great payoff; we care about their misfortunes to a greater extent than we would those of merely stereotypical police drama characters. All in all, this is a finely crafted melodrama without pretensions, and wholly enjoyable as just such.
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33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
MAGNIFICENT FRENCH POLICE DRAMA, April 9, 2007
Delve into the personal lives of an elite French police unit on the most intimate level.
There is murder and death and crimes to be solved. And all the troubling foibles and
flaws of human behavior on both sides of the law.
This is great character-driven story telling and exquisite filmmaking. It was nominated
for six Cesars including Best Picture. Nathalie Bay won for Best Actress.
Not knowing the plot in advance is a big plus. I was intensely involved. Don't miss it if
you are an adult with a refined sense of cinema at its best. This one will knock you out.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
'Le Petit' Noir, July 10, 2007
(3 1/2) While watching `Le Petit Lieutenant' I had to keep asking myself, `Why is this movie anything better than a US crime series?' Often watching foreign movies, I have to back up and say, 'How can I judge this movie?' After all, there is a temptation to give a French movie an unfair advantage or to demote its value based on American standard or yardstick. Either way is an insult to everyone. Comparing, `Le Petit Lieutenant' to `Law and Order,' a fine American crime series, yielded some results. While the developments and investigations in the movie remind one of any crime series, some elements definitely put this movie ahead. The authenticity of the characters seems even more vivid and real. Especially the dialogue reveals a good deal about the nature of France's police force and more than a self-examination of French culture.
The movie begins with the graduation of the titled character, Antoine Deroue're (Jalil Lespert) from the police academy. He's already an elite member of the force, a lieutenant, but still a new fish in the pond. He's left his school teacher wife behind in Le Havre to pursue his career in Paris. His new supervisor, Caroline Vaudieu (Nathalle Baye), is a sort of "super cop" from a "family of super cops". Newly reinstated, she is greeted enthusiastically as she returns after two years of complications only hinted at as a recovering alcoholic. His new division comes across with great authenticity. His initiation includes the escapades of his colleagues and their conversations are full of sentiments about their work, specifically, and about France in general. Included are unvarnished prejudices of foreigners; something that sets up the main plot well. In one conversation, one officer after a few beers offers eloquently: "Paris now sucks." In the discourse they decide the turning point was 1995. One of the brightest lights of the force is a colleague of Moroccan decent who shares that it took him years before he was accepted as one of group. During the engaging prologue, we see the run-of-the-mill development of Antoine develop until early on when he runs into a rare case of real import: A Polish man, seemingly homeless, is dragged up from the Seine River and revealed to have been cruelly murdered.
`Le Petit Lieutenant' works well because the dialogue is excellent, the action feels real, and the complications and setbacks develop naturally. In one of the scenes, I was truly moved by the unexpected. A development took a while for the characters to get over as well as for me as I watched. There is also effective humor. In one scene, Antoine and his supervisor are smoking marijuana in a park. A nightfly comes by to mooch a drag from their joint. Parting, he warns them, "Watch out. This place is crawling with cops."
In the end, that's how 'Le Petit Lieutenant' is distinctive. The details show some of the futility of a young, dedicated man in emotional times with absorbing characters and the repercussions of their lives.
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