Rarely has the thin line between good and evil been so ambiguous.
Not morally. Just physically.
You don’t need a scorecard to tell good from bad in “The Connection,” but the resemblance – sharp jutting profile, flared sideburns, Roman nose, devilishly handsome – between two archetypes is just one of the odd details in this retelling of “The French Connection” from the French point of view.
The gritty 1971 thriller with a classic car chase and an indelible anti-hero Popeye Doyle, played by Oscar winner Gene Hackman was the stuff of suspense and momentum. The French version is a procedural and personal affair, and perhaps closer to what actually occurred in this “true” story.
Jean Dujardin, who won an Oscar for his expressive performance in the silent film “The Artist,” is a street savvy judge leading a task force into the drug problem. The cops are no help, because they have been infiltrated by suave but brutal drug lord, played by Gilles Lellouche.
Lellouche knows a thing or two about the genre; he directed the gripping and violent character study “Mesrine: Killer Instinct.” And his underplaying of the villain compares favorably to Dujardin’s emotional outbursts, although the psychology of both feels artificial and their mano y mano juxtaposition reminiscent of the high-octane cop-crook drama “Heat.”
There is something distinctly French about the way writer-director Cedric Jimenez turns a lurid crime story into a detached and dysfunctional relationship drama and finds the eye of the hurricane calm in its sprawl. There are several massive disco scenes, this was the 70s after all, but nary a car chase in sight.
Although cars are driven.
**1/2 Two and one half stars
With Jean Dujardin, Gilles Lellouche, Celine Sallette, Melanie Doutey. Produced by Alain Goldman. Written by Audrey Diwan, Cedric Jimenez. Directed by Cedric Jimenez. Approximate running time: 135 minutes. Rated R; violence, drug content and language.
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