Cash Truck

Alexandre Demarre takes a job on a security van. The man who did it before him was killed in a robbery. There are three on the crew: Alexandre, the experienced and silent Vidal, and Chatillon. The same route, the same bags, the same waiting. Nobody on the crew trusts anybody, and another robbery is coming. Nicolas Boukhrief directs. Albert Dupontel plays Alexandre and Jean Dujardin plays Vidal. The film's interest is not the robbery but the work. Most of it takes place inside the van: procedure, the armoured door, radio checks, a sandwich at the break, and hours of tedium. The tension comes out of that repetition rather than out of action. Before this Jean Dujardin was known in France for television comedy, and this was his first serious dramatic part; he went on to win an Oscar for The Artist. The French title is Le Convoyeur. Boukhrief researched the job with documentary care, and the mortality rate among cash transit workers, their conditions and the security policies of the companies all enter the film directly. In 2021 Guy Ritchie remade the story with Jason Statham as Wrath of Man. Who it is for: viewers who like French crime cinema and thrillers built on labour. Who it is not for: there is very little action, the pace is deliberately slow, and the characters' histories are underwritten.