Undescribable Perfection

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

"The Crimson Rivers" is by any means a decent thriller. Throughout the whole movie, you get entertained, not least because of the appealing acting most of the cast shows. There's a high level of suspense that keeps you guessing, some creepy little extras that distinguish it from your everyday TV-crime and a set of likable characters.It is all the more sad to say, that time and again some small mistakes tend to endanger this otherwise positive impression. First of all I'm never a big fan of making up cities. Even though I understand quite well that no city or university wants to be connected to such events, it just doesn't fit into a movie written in a realistic setting for me. Secondly some of the characters are just a bit simple. There are the unintelligent village policemen that mispronounce literally everything they come across and problematic policemen that just randomly beat up people and destroy property without anyone bothering. A bit more depth would have suited some of these characters well, especially the policemen. Lastly I hope that no university would grand doctor's diplomas for topics like this and if so I put my trust in the rest of the scholar world to protest it.So if you're not too strict with logic or reality what you get here will be an excellent thriller. If you, like me, prefer a more realistic setting to some extent, you will have to look over issues some times.

Over the top thriller with a detective duo on the heels of a serial killer, one a legendary sleuth and the other, a hot blooded rule breaker. Bizarre and gruesome murders high in a glacial mountain community uncover a eugenics conspiracy with a late twist reveal that doesn't feel earned, but typical for the genre. Understated performances by Reno and a handsome Vincent Cassel. Mention must be made of the out of left field fight scene between Cassel and some skinheads, which plays out like a video game complete with ridiculous sound effects. Stakes never feel as high as they should be, but otherwise it's an enjoyable way to pass the time.

It seems to me, and here I may be quite quite wrong, that both Reno and Cassel are French stars who have made it sufficiently big to crack the American market, yet still returning regularly to film home productions. As such, Les Rivières Pourpres seemed to me to be a Heat/Righteous Kill of sorts: a vehicle to pair together two screen legends.Sent from Paris to assist in the solution of a brutal murder in the university town of Guernon, Pierre Niemans struggles to connect the mysterious dots. Contemporaneously, Max Kerkerian investigates the desecration of a young girl's grave. Inevitably, their paths are thrown together, and they must team up to solve their mutual case.In its opening fifteen minutes, Les Rivières Pourpres makes it seem as though it might take any of many routes to completely different films. A standard police thriller is what it eventually settles upon, after some cinematographic flourishes hint toward the more appealing aspect of a drama of the effect upon detectives of witnessing the horrors they investigate. The flourishes I have mentioned are impressive, but taken a degree too far on more than one occasion. Twice used is the classic dolly zoom, and twice is it wasted, adding nothing but wonderment at why the filmmakers would employ such a thing so redundantly. Technical highs and lows aside, the film works with its two leads, holding off their meeting for as long as possible. This adds to the sense that the film exists solely to pair these two, playing off their respective career successes. Such careers, it must be noted, have come from a certain prowess in acting, and this is on full display here. Reno and Cassel play off each other well, Reno playing the straight man to Cassel's more comical, less battle-hardened cop. Speaking of comedy, Kerkerian's two underlings are called upon to bear the majority of this, unsuccessfully so. Their humour is misplaced and ineffective, though not quite deleteriously so. The plot from which the mystery derives is a little baffling, Cassel himself having gone on record as saying he doesn't understand it. It's not entirely beyond the threshold of understandability, but the film doesn't exactly offer you much help in figuring out its every detail. Mentioned flaws aside, it's cracking good fun, truth be told. Cassel and Reno are a fine team, their unveiling of this puzzling mystery well effected. Don't expect to be blown away, moved to great thought or emotion, or motivated to lend much memory, but it's a perfectly fine way to spend one hundred minutes.A small number of narrative flaws, some misused technical tricks, and some poorly placed humour mar Les Rivières Pourpres to an extent, but not so much so that it doesn't remain enjoyable. A nice fight sequence early on and some functional cinematographic flair are to be admired, certainly, giving the film a nice look to go with its decent entertainment value.

People can comment on camera work, imagery, and acting quality of a film, but all of that does not matter if the writing is...well...crap. Perhaps something was lost in translation here but the film had so many plot holes that bowling balls would fall through it. I wont explain specifics to avoid spoilers but by the time the facts, twists, and the killer was revealed I just didn't care. It was not "Oh my god," but "Ok, sure, whatever." This was due to a poor story development which meanders and looses it's audience, not to mention poor pacing which made it quite anti-climatic.I gave it a five out of 10 because the story had potential, however it was told poorly, acting and imagery aside.One last rant: What was the deal with the transplanted fight scene in the "paintball club?" The choreography there was terrible and did not look real. It appeared to be a feeble attempt at making it seem like an action movie.I know that the french can do better than that, considering "high tension", and "frontiers" to name a few.