☆ ☆ ½
The Crimson Rivers (2000) – M. Kassovitz
A star-studded French serial killer thriller offered a
lot of promise and started off strong and gritty, albeit with some clichéd characters
for this genre. Jean Reno plays the
jaded police commissioner who does not play by the rules, brought in to
investigate a gruesome murder in the French Alps. In a separate plot strand, Vincent Cassel
plays another investigator who ignores the rules and can be a bit of a
hot-head, investigating the desecration of a girl’s tomb, presumably by some Nazi
skinheads. Naturally, the two
investigations come together in a focus on a prestigious but secluded
University in the mountains. Members of
the Faculty are picked off one-by-one, with the serial killer using one death
to point out clues to the next. Reno
suspects alumnus Nadia Farès who has a chip on her shoulder against the
university (but still works there, helping to divert avalanches from descending
on the school). She is also his presumed
love interest. With its strong cast –
and direction by actor Matthieu Kassovitz (who was so great in the political
spy series, The Bureau) – things hold together well, until suddenly they don’t. Reputedly, Vincent Cassel complained that he
could never understand the plot and this permanently damaged his relationship
with Kassovitz. Reno returned for a
sequel and a couple of decades later a French TV series appeared. However, I’m with Cassel – this does not add
up.
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