Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I'm a big fan of Costa-Gavras' political films, they really are the best in their genre. I was taken by surprise by this film, because I had no idea Gavras can make funny films also, since he normally is so political/critical.This movie is a delicious dark comedy! It's intelligent and thematizes a current and therefore important subject. All actors are very good, but José Garcia really is something special! I don't remember having seen him before and am happy to see a "new" funny face. He is not only funny, but also very natural, believable. I like that he looks Spanish/Portuguese, being it a French movie.A man that can make political movies, but also such good comedies, like Gavras does, really is a gifted man! I'll watch this movie again.

We are introduced to Bruno Davert as he is being recognized for his many years of service for a paper manufacturer. Little does Bruno know that soon he will be on the unemployment line because the company has decided to outsource the work to a Rumanian firm. Thus begins the story of a man's sudden descent into a crisis caused by the situation in most of the industrialized nations.Bruno devises a scheme to eliminate the possible competition that are looking for the same position he is after. For that purpose, he rents a mail box at the post office after he has placed a phony ad asking worthy candidates for the same position he covets. Bruno selects the five men and a manager that will have to be eliminated for his chances to be better. How he will go about it presents a problem: he wants to use an old pistol that belonged to his father in WWII.Life at home has begun to deteriorate. His loyal wife Marlene has taken part time jobs as a nurse in order to help in a household without steady income. Their married life also suffers because the strain Bruno is going through trying his hand as an assassin. Not content with that, the Daverts find out in the worse way their son has been stealing software programs and faces jail time if found out.Bruno goes through a killing spree eliminating the competitors. His resolve is almost shattered when he has a chance to meet with one of his would be victims that he has followed to a department store after setting up an interview he doesn't intend to keep with the man. In this unhappy man Bruno sees himself as in a mirror.As luck would have it, Bruno seems to get away with murder, but does he really? The last scene of the movie offers a puzzle that is left to the viewer to solve."Le Couperet", directed by Costa-Gavras, is a black comedy for our times. In it, we are taken to see first hand the indignities anyone has to face when corporations such as the one that employed Bruno Davert decide to take the business some place else, leaving the stranded employees to fend for themselves. The film is an adaptation of Donald Westlake's novel "The Ax". Mr. Westlake's books lend themselves for screen treatments such as the one Mr. Costa-Gavras has given the material. Some commentary to this forum suggests this movie to be a film noir, but to tell the truth, only the one sequence might fall on that category and nothing else. It's rather a black comedy of mystery and suspense in our humble opinion.The best thing in the film is Jose Garcia, an actor with a face that goes perfectly with his character. Mr. Garcia was a happy choice, as he never disappoints. Karin Viard appears as Marlene a wife at the end of her rope because her world is crashing on her. Ulrich Tukur and the excellent Oliver Gourmet are seen among the accomplished cast doing amazing work for the director."Le Couperet" is worth the prize of admission, or the DVD rental.

Here is a really original idea for a movie. Bruno Davert is a French expert in a profession that falls victim to consolidation and lay-offs. His losing the job does not really seem to affect his material life, thanks maybe to the French or European safety net, but does hurt him in his personal life and pride of being the main income provider in the home. He loves his family, he is ready to fight for his dignity, so he will do the normal thing that one can do in his situation - he draws a list of his competitors - one holding the only remaining dream position and the other five best competitors who are jobless as he is and ... starts eliminating them.Costa Gavras, the director of the big political causes touches here an important issue of our days which hurts badly a lot of people. The nice thing is that he is doing it in a way that combines black humor and compassion, and in a minor mode that does not allow us to really hate the serial killer hero of the story. Jose Garcia is cast in the main role, and as the whole cast he plays in a minor and day-to-day manner that gives the impression that the terrible deeds happening under our eyes are the norm in a society that lost its human logic. This film is not a shocker when you see it, it is actually quite entertaining and funny to watch sometimes, but makes you reflect at the real situation described here more after the movie than during the screening. Which is not small thing to achieve I believe.

Many years ago there was a film starring Alec Guinness called "Kind Hearts and Coronets", which took the case that a member of a wealthy family murders off his relatives to inherit the estate. "Le Couperet" offers a similar plot, although this time a disgruntled unemployed engineer becomes an inept assassin to remove his competitors for a top job with often-hilarious consequences.In this very dark comedy Jose Garcia does well as the bumbling killer, at times reminiscent of a young Jack Lemmon, and there are many surprises along the way. The film does highlight more sincerely than you may expect the plight of middle-aged professionals that are retrenched, and find it difficult to obtain positions in the current climate. Many watching the movie might well relate to its characters and their plight.Excellent sequences include the job interview, which has more than a ring of truth, the discussions about unemployment and its social consequences by the discouraged out-of-work executives, and the scenes with the marriage counselor. Despite its black humour, there is a very human side to this film. Costa-Gavras is an exceptional filmmaker, with experience that shows in the smooth integration of the hilarious with an undertow of real pathos. The story ends on a suitably enigmatic note.