One can hardly avoid comparing this film with `Seven'. But at the very least, the feel of the film is different, as the French influence and the beautiful mountain scenery is not something commercial American films can manage to create. The rest, however, is only run of the mill crime story fare.
The story has two detectives investigating seemingly separate crimes, the clues for which leading them on to the same path eventually. The story can be so much better if the director, and presumably the script writers, can restrain themselves from all the unnecessary foreshadowing, which only served to give the plot away and dispel the sense of mystery. Have the clues from early on in the film served to distract or misdirect the audience, this would have been a fine film. As it is, any member of the audience with an average IQ should be able to know what has happened and what is happening. The only aspect I did not guess correctly during the film was the fact that eugenics was involved rather than genetic engineering. Had this been an American film, I suspect, they would have substituted it for genetic engineering.
There are logical inconsistencies in the plot that seriously undermined the believability of the film. For example, Fanny's mother supposedly arranged for the `death' of Judith, yet she entered a convent and became a recluse a scant two years after the `accident'. The whereabouts of Judith is never explained, and she simply popped out of nowhere at the end, completely shattering the credibility of the plot. While I am willing to take every aspect of the story as told on screen, these inconsistencies are careless, and cause the film to be far less enjoyable.
Reno and Cassell are average in the film. They do, however, play their characters well, giving a sense of the rebel cop, with a sense of barely contained capacity for violence. Once the two are brought together, the audience has a fairly good idea of what is going on, and the film becomes more an action movie than a suspense. Reno's attraction for Nadia Fares' character, Fanny, is, however, too contrived, giving one the sense that the director suddenly realizes the film must end soon, and is bringing the story to a close with scant regard for the abrupt change of pace.
Overall, the film is an entertaining piece, even though it suffers from some glaring inadequacies.
The story has two detectives investigating seemingly separate crimes, the clues for which leading them on to the same path eventually. The story can be so much better if the director, and presumably the script writers, can restrain themselves from all the unnecessary foreshadowing, which only served to give the plot away and dispel the sense of mystery. Have the clues from early on in the film served to distract or misdirect the audience, this would have been a fine film. As it is, any member of the audience with an average IQ should be able to know what has happened and what is happening. The only aspect I did not guess correctly during the film was the fact that eugenics was involved rather than genetic engineering. Had this been an American film, I suspect, they would have substituted it for genetic engineering.
There are logical inconsistencies in the plot that seriously undermined the believability of the film. For example, Fanny's mother supposedly arranged for the `death' of Judith, yet she entered a convent and became a recluse a scant two years after the `accident'. The whereabouts of Judith is never explained, and she simply popped out of nowhere at the end, completely shattering the credibility of the plot. While I am willing to take every aspect of the story as told on screen, these inconsistencies are careless, and cause the film to be far less enjoyable.
Reno and Cassell are average in the film. They do, however, play their characters well, giving a sense of the rebel cop, with a sense of barely contained capacity for violence. Once the two are brought together, the audience has a fairly good idea of what is going on, and the film becomes more an action movie than a suspense. Reno's attraction for Nadia Fares' character, Fanny, is, however, too contrived, giving one the sense that the director suddenly realizes the film must end soon, and is bringing the story to a close with scant regard for the abrupt change of pace.
Overall, the film is an entertaining piece, even though it suffers from some glaring inadequacies.