Dheepan Reviews

Since I'm big fan of Jacques Audiard and since this movie won the Golden Palm at the Cannes film festival, I was really eager to check it out. I remember that, at the time, it was a rather controversial win since many didn't expect this movie to get this prize, especially since it was competing against the seemingly far superior 'Saul fia'. Well, even though it turned out to be a decent watch, it was still far from being Audiard's best directing effort. Indeed, in my opinion, even though half of it was really compelling and even quite fascinating to behold, the other half, on the other hand, barely worked, I'm afraid. First of all, even though the 3 actors involved delivered some strong performances, they must have been the best looking refugee family I have ever seen which made them maybe easier to watch but it felt also rather misguided and I always felt conscious that I was watching some actors. Furthermore, the fact that they seemed to get along fine right from the very beginning felt too good to be true. Then, you had this completely failed scene where Dheepan gets in touch with a colonel from Sri Lanka. Seriously, the guy orders him to gather some money to buy some weapons but how the hell is Dheepan going to achieve this goal with his job as a caretaker? But then, the colonel and his 'mission' were never mentioned again showing how completely pointless the scene was. They eventually had some bigger problems with some local gangsters but even though it was quite interesting, even this storyline was rather half-baked and towards the end, I had the feeling that I was suddenly watching 'Scarface' or some classic Honk-Kong action flick from the 80's directed by John Woo. To conclude, even though the whole thing was seriously flawed, it was still a compelling tale about some refugees, something really topical nowadays, so I still think it is worth a look but it is probably one of the least deserving winners of the Golden Palm. 

Nothing outstanding in Dheepan¿s life because is beginning in each scene. I like the girl bieng sincere with him, and the meeting with the 'terrorist colonel'; but the end seems a violent Hollywood movie with the hero taking everything in his hands.