11.6

François Cluzet practically doesn’t leave the screen, successfully carrying the entire film on his shoulders – with his unreadable, stony expressions, he keeps the audience curious as to what he wants to do and how he’s going to do it. Not that much happens in the end, however, and the film remains just a well-rendered take on a real event, which for foreign viewers is not as interesting as for the French. For them, this was the media event of the year. I was happy to hear M83’s “Midnight City” in the end credits. (30.06.2013)

In present day France there is a trio of sufficiently charismatic tough-guy actors who could also easily get away with a more regular role of the “guy next door"; Lindon, Auteuil and especially Cluzet, whose excellent performance is all the more fascinating because throughout the entire movie we don’t condemn him, we don’t get to look inside his head but still (or perhaps because of this) he is hypnotically fascinating. Which is fundamental for the result, because this isn’t a regular heist genre movie, but another in a line of gently unravelling movies about middle age crisis standing on a carefully constructed atmosphere. (16.09.2013)