The Connection ***
Dir: Cédric Jimenez. With: Jean Dujardin, Gilles Lellouche, Céline Sallette, Mélanie Doutey. 135 mins. Cert: 15
This confident Gallic
takeback of the true-life story underpinning the Popeye Doyle films of the
1970s proves both narratively engrossing and skilful in its marshalling of the
widescreen frame. As magistrate Jean Dujardin adopts ever riskier methods to
bring druglord Gilles Lellouche to justice, co-writer/director Cédric Jimenez can’t swerve
many of the usual retro crime-movie clichés: yes, higher-ups advise our hero to
halt his investigation, and yes, Dujardin’s weary spouse eventually takes the
kids to her mother’s place. Yet the actors impose themselves, rather than
simply trying on these sideburns for size: the film’s too busy to settle for
pastiche. If its shape and trajectory are quickly felt out, Jimenez hauls in
punchy story and character beats – the destination of a bribe the magistrate
accepts, Lellouche’s near-anaphylactic reaction to Kim Wilde’s “Cambodia” –
while Dujardin’s sweaty gravitas will be a revelation to those who’ve only seen
him pantomiming in silent movies and Nespresso ads.
The Connection opens in selected cinemas from today.
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