Starting with absurdity, continuing as a Bildungsroman, developing into a vigilante film, wrapping up with a stereotypical immigrant success story negated by cinematic language that leaves it ambiguous whether this happy ending is dream or reality. Audiard has done the best synthesis of immigrant stories and the refugee experience.
The tension between a killer-machine-turned soft-spoken janitor and relentless urban gangsters brings back the old wisdom on violence: those who fought in real wars never want violence back. On the other hand, those who are left on the margins of our society might develop an almost anachronistic volatility and a combative instinct. The latter might seem child-play as evidenced by the final elimination of thugs by the Tamil warrior, but the intricate relationship between the two forms of violence goes beyond the dramatic tensions and sticks in audience's head long after the film theatre lights up.
The narrative and the language have few traces of insincerity or patronization, which is extremely surprising for its subject matter. Family as another subject matter softens the images full of blood and firearms.
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