Saturday 25 September 2010

Sans Laisser de Traces (Traceless)

Some of my regular readers know that I simply LOVE French cinema, that I have an eclectic taste and end-up watching many odd films; by odd I mean commercial cinema (lol!). So, sometimes I dare to explore French mainstream cinema and that’s exactly what I was doing when I decided to watch this film. No, it didn’t surprise me as for me is mainstream cinema but I found it entertaining and at times felt it was thrilling. Still, have to admit that I enjoyed quite a lot Benoît Magimel performance as the young executive on the rise with a troubled past that becomes more complicated present.

Film tells about Etienne (Magimel) that is about to become President of a large corporation but his conscience is troubled because an injustice he committed to start climbing the business ladder. Convinced by a youth friend he visits the man object of his injustice but things turn bad and his friend kills the man. From that moment on life becomes a true torment/conscience-conflict as Etienne is a good man that wants to do the right thing. Is a moral story, thus makes it not a bad story and definitely one that Hollywood will not like to remake.

Also enjoyed the clean settings that made me think of some cold/clean/aseptic Nordic or German cinema settings and only at times felt thrills, which is exactly why I call the film mainstream as I think the director needed to carry his storytelling with lots of more thrilling moments to take the film out-of-the-ordinary. The story gave room to have many more thrilling moments. Also the film has the unthinkable in a French movie (well, the ones I like) as not only has a clear ending but has a happy ending.

Anyway is a nice and positive story for a film labeled as crime and Magimel’s performance is enjoyable with his great body language, sometimes deadpan face and sometimes facial expressions that tell all. If you’re in the mood to watch ‘the other’ French cinema then perhaps you should give this movie a try that probably will entertain you.

Enjoy!

Watch trailer @MOC

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