Review of Petit Lieutenant [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

An engrossing movie that never makes the leap to being a great one

Trailing a slew of awards and superlatives, French flic flick Le Petit Lieutenant is a film of two halves, the first half following a recently gradated young plain clothes cop through the traditional rites of passage - dealing with drunks, his first autopsy, trying to persuade his wife to give up her job and move to Paris with him, getting drunk with the boys, making that stupid mistake that threatens careers - the second half following Nathalie Baye's returning detective as the pressure makes her relapse back into drinking, the two linked by the pursuit of a pair of Russian muggers with a penchant for leaving their dead or dying victims in the canal. The case is followed in unsensational police procedural fashion, the few acts of violence and the one chase sequence underplayed effectively. These cops follow the rules, act and talk like real cops rather than movie cops and the mistakes they make are believable ones rather than movie ones. No-one takes the law into their own hands or goes rogue and the film unfolds in a naturalistic, genuine documentary approach, which means no excessive shakeycam or unnaturally processed orange and teal color palette.

What definitely doesn't feel real but seems common in a certain sort of policier is the absurd preponderance of movie posters dotted around the walls - Once Upon a Time in America, Saving Private Ryan, Podium, Taxi Driver, Un Flic, Seven, Reservoir Dogs, When We Were Kings and even a still from the Sicilian Clan make it look more a film distribution company's offices than a police station at times. Whether it's because of that unfortunate tendency to remind you of movies rather than the real life it strives for elsewhere or perhaps because at others it's almost a little too observational rather than drawing you in, it never quite packs the emotional punch you feel it aspires to when the inevitable error of judgement has disastrous consequences, though that's no fault of the excellent performances from Baye, revealing much by seeming to do little, a likeable Jalil Lespert and Roschdy Zem. Only the extended final shot is problematic, shifting from the character's confusion and discomfort to a couple of moments when it appears that they're consciously looking at the camera rather than, as presumably intended, the audience. As a result it's a good, engrossing movie that never makes the leap to a great one because it never quite makes up its mind whether it wants the audience to be unaware that it's just a movie or directly reminded of the fact.

The transfer is acceptable but not outstanding with the only extras a trailer and a photo gallery.