Stop Me Here

This is the kind of movie which seems appealing first ;the hero ,a nice taxi driver ,well played by Reda Kateb,whose pet cat is named "Gerschwin" is certainly very endearing.Overnight,he is accused of kidnapping a girl , treated like a dog by a rotten police,badly defended by a lousy lawyer -his final speech with an empty file before the jury retires, would not convince a compassionate member- not even given a glass of water .Enough is enough!Sometimes we think he has been framed -a la Boileau-Narcejac- ,sometimes we think that the screenwriters try to ape Kafka, sometimes we think that the director wants to update André Cayatte's Causes Célèbres :but André Cayatte,in his best works would never have allowed himself that implausible Coup De Théâtre ,after the jury has brought a life sentence .

If we feel for the hero in the first hour,the last third ,with the greedy new lawyer,seems thoroughly pointless ,and we can wonder why the abducted child's mom did not turn up one single time before the trial ,why she never tried to talk to the so called criminal she had found nice when he drove her home in this fatal ride.Ditto for the episode in the hospital.

This is an entertaining movie,with a good lead, but if you forget all those implausibilities and the mushy ending.