Rating: B
Dir: Michiel Blanchart
Star: Jonathan Feltre, Jonas Bloquet, Natacha Krief, Romain Duris
a.k.a. La nuit se traîne
Curiously, we were just speaking about locksmiths the other day. How do they check the person they’re letting in is legit? A failure in this exact area is what kicks off things for Mady (Feltre), as he works the night shift in Brussels. A pretty girl, Claire (Krief), plus a shared fondness for Petula Clark (!), and he’s soon bending the rules. Before long, Mady is hauled up in front of Yannick (Duris) to explain his role in the theft of a large sum of money, and the death of the man holding it. Managing to convince Yannick he’s a patsy, Mady goes out with henchman Theo (Bloquet) to find the mysterious woman and the missing cash before dawn.
Except there’s a further problem, which makes it increasingly apparent someone does not want Mady to see the sun rise. Everyone is desperate to get their hands on the money, and if it doesn’t reappear, the shit is going to roll uphill. Even Yannick will be in deep trouble with a certain Albanian to whom he owes a debt. This all helps give everyone here good motivation, purely in terms of survival. It plays out against the background of local BLM protests – which apparently reached Belgium three years after everyone had moved on to the next hip cause. But it does offer scope for social commentary, albeit handled with enough lightness of touch, it doesn’t get in the way.
In particular, Mady, despite his skin colour, is pointedly not interested in joining the demonstration. He’s too busy working his way through college, to go on a march and wave placards. Yet – probably inevitably – this refreshingly different message can’t be allowed to remain. The final act sees Mady finally rely on the police for salvation. Guess how that goes? It comes on the heels of a disappointing sprint towards resolution where he seems to have more in common with The Terminator than a humble Belgian locksmith. He becomes an unstoppable force, running through the streets of Brussels on a heroic quest to save the day, because… Yeah, I’m still not quite certain about that element of proceedings. I’d have been happy to escape with my life.
Yet to that point, writer-director Blanchart has done an awful lot right. Beginning with Mady, who is a highly appealing everyman hero, of no special skills or attributes (except lockpicking – at one point, Theo locks him in a bathroom, a plan clearly not properly thought through!). You’ll find yourself rooting for him to survive, and praise is also due to Duris, who makes Yannick one of the scarier villains in recent European cinema. Duct-tape: now with 1,002 uses… Watch the movie and you’ll understand. It’s three-quarters of a top tier thriller, and what follows the rest of the way does not negate all the good up until that point.
The film is available for digital download on April 28th through Vertigo Releasing.