Counter Investigation

In Franck Mancuso's film, Jean Dujardin plays a homicide detective whose daughter is murdered. A suspect is caught quickly and convicted, and continues to say he is innocent. The detective does not listen at first, then a detail in the file begins to trouble him and he decides to reopen the investigation his own team conducted. The idea is that justice landing on the wrong man is also a loss for the victim's family. Dujardin's character is driven not by revenge but by the need to find the right person, which is where the film departs from the genre's usual shape. Mancuso had worked for years in the French police, and the film's best passages are the procedural ones: interrogation, paperwork, hierarchy. It is an early instance of Dujardin's move into dramatic parts, an unexpected choice at the time for someone known as a comic actor. Who it is for: viewers who like French police thrillers and plainly built suspense. Who it is not for: anyone wanting action or an intricate puzzle, since the film is short and direct.