Country:
France
Recognizable Faces:
Jean Reno
Vincent Cassel
Directed By:
Mathieu Kassovitz
Have you ever picked up a novel from the bookstore shelves ten or twelve times but never ended up buying it? Every book lover has that ONE book that's intriguing but just doesn't have enough appeal for them. Mine is Jean-Christophe Grangé's THE CRIMSON RIVERS. It's his books in general, I must say. His premises are always interesting, but the way he words things up is weird and I don't know. Something about his fiction always seemed too ham-fisted for me. I thought that watching THE CRIMSON RIVERS in English would be a nice, cautious way of approaching his body of work. Another interesting point about this movie, is that it's directed by Mathieu Kassovitz. He's the man behind the beautiful LA HAINE (Hatred) and the god-awful BABYLON A.D*, so I was quite curious about that missing link. Where did it went wrong in between those two extremes of cinema, made by the same man?
What you have to know about the English version of this movie, is that Jean Reno and Vincent Cassel both translated their own characters while the rest of the cast is translated by American voice-actors. So it sounds a little goofy and with the accents, it's sometimes hard to understand what the main characters are saying. Reno is Pierre Niemans, a legendary cop who's affected to a weird case of a mutilated corpse found in the mountains by an expert climber. The man has no hands, no eyes and was kept alive through extreme suffering. In the meantime, the awesomely named and awesomely french cop Max Kerkerian (Cassel) is investigation the tomb desecration of a little girl. Seems straightforward enough and yet the case is more than meets the eye. Somebody wants little Judith out of everybody's memory for an obscure reason. Of course, the cases are linked.
The French are very funny when they're trying to emulate American behavior. While their cinema has a gracefulness that is alien to Hollywood, the longer shots and their way of framing doesn't suit an Americanized concept such as "dark thriller". Watching THE CRIMSON RIVERS, I kind of understood the benefits of a fast paced editing. For example, there's a very funny scene where Vincent Cassel interrogates skinheads about the tomb desecration and suddenly, a fight breaks out. Everybody turns into a shittier version of Bruce Lee. It's beautifully framed, but it looks retarded because it's so evident that it's choreographed. Also, what skinheads are into Kung Fu and Asian martial arts at all? These guys are supposed to be racists. Whenever Cassel is on screen, comedy is looming around the corner anyway. While he's amazing at playing the asshole, he feels out of place as a kick-ass cop. He makes funny faces when he shoots, his stunt are stiff and clumsy, but this is endearing.
While THE CRIMSON RIVERS is a very good what-the-fuck-is-going-on movie, it made me question myself about Mathieu Kassovitz's sanity. Some people just can't take success very well and this movie is the first sign that he really lost track of whatever made him great with LA HAINE. There is music every step of the way in THE CRIMSON RIVERS. This is as irritating as it gets, trying to steer you into feeling a certain emotion. It's almost as bad as the old Hollywood peek-a-boo trick where they jack up the volume to get a cheap scare out of you. It's a decent buddy cop thriller where Reno and Cassel find the tiny windows of complicity in between the long stretches of miscommunication (takes skills to do that) and they keep afloat what could have been a potential train wreck, given to less talented actors. Watch it without much expectation and you'll find a movie that has aged in a strangely entertaining fashion.
SCORE: 77%
*The novel it's based on, BABYLON BABIES is actually quite good, but it's 700 pages long and would have required a trilogy of similar length to LORD OF THE RINGS to make any sense. But really, check it out. BABYLON BABIES, by Maurice Dantec. If you're into sci-fi, cyberpunk and all that, it's not bad at all.
