The French thriller that we went to see was in fact the second of the two "Mesrine" movies entitled L'ennemi public n°1 (2008). This biopic covered the latter day life (and death) of the charismatic French gangster Jacques Mesrine (played with va va voom by a sexy and dangerous Vincent Cassel)....and I enjoyed two thirds of it!The first third of the film concentrated on Mesrine's rise to infamy when he stole (in true Robin Hood style) from the major banks, then with typical Gallic swagger, we see his verbal banter with the authorities after his capture and subsequent escape from prison.
All this is breathtakingly exciting and it was a shame that before the terribly tense final scenes the film lost its way with an overlong and meandering centre section
Worth seeing for Cassel's superb acting though
7/10
I have to admit that this was one of my favourite films of last year. I say one because I have to regard Mesrine as a single film. It's an epic example of the sort of existentialist thriller the French are so good at and a superb example of how to have your period cake and eat it with present day cinematic technique. Vincent Cassel was simply magnificent throughout and I really didn't find any dull moments throughout the whole double length of it. Not a nice man to make a film about but boy what a ride we are taken on.
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