Brotherhood of Tears

For once ,a good title ,and a screenplay which does not fall apart in the first reel,which is rare in French contemporary thrillers;besides,Jérémie Rénier is in it,and that was my main reason to watch it.

The director has a good sense of mystery and he makes the best of the settings: A candlelit apartment,a public garden where our ex-cop meets a strange old man,an apparently quiet canal,a strange ceremony in China ,a meeting in the dark forest,an auction sale (probably a hint at Hitchcock),and this shop where all the clocks have stopped ...the director knows only one tempo:accelerated ,and his hero seems overtaken by events in the first half.

Some flaws appear in the last third:the providential intervention of the superintendent (who,by chance ,is the hero's half brother) ,and the banal last pictures:after such a revelation (and the scene in the cellar is deeply moving in its horror),we expected more.

For a short while,I feared these suitcases might lead the story into the dreadful "transporter" territory ,but it is not so :Rénier does not portray a superman,à la Statham,but an ex-cop whose only reason to live is his daughter ;his past is revealed late in the story .

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