Komplizen

This movie was dark, and not like other high paced detective movies. It steered toward some familiar scenarios done elsewhere, but turned away from them at just the right time. The plot is complex, but not over bearing. The script was excellent in that the story flowed perfectly, every event discovered at the right time, the dialog between characters engaging at all times. The entire cast did an excellent job! I loved the relationship between the two Detectives, their lives were intertwined, but very separate. The boy and girl were perfect. She is like many of our Daughters, innocent outwardly but yet? The ending is absolutely perfect considering the story of the two Detectives. I'm very sorry I just saw this a few years later.This is a very well made movie! I will definitely be looking up the actors and actresses to find more of their work. Thanks to the Cast and Crew-Definitely a 10 out of 10!

The opening sequence of "Complices", with a body floating down a river, will resonate with those who remember "Twin Peaks". In this instance, the waterlogged corpse is that of a rootless young man, Vincent, rather than beautiful homecoming queen Laura Palmer - and the subsequent murder inquiry unveils the hidden decadence of the French city of Lyons, rather than that of a small town in the Pacific Northwest. Herve and Karine are the two detectives assigned to the case, and their initial fact-finding in Lyons reveals an additional echo from David Lynch's landmark TV series - Vincent, like Laura, had been prostituting himself. As Herve and Karine probe into Vincent's complicated life - as well as their own - the film cuts back and forth between the murder investigation and the young hustler's activities in the days prior to his death. They discover he was bi-sexual, and involved with high-school student Rebecca, who has disappeared. The detectives soon learn demure, middle-class Rebecca had participated in Vincent's commercial engagements, leaving them uncertain whether the missing girl may be the unknown killer, or another victim.

Writer/director Mermoud creates believable and sympathetic personalities, and his actors' fine performances ensure the characters remain interesting until the story's two time-lines are integrated in an unexpected and poignant conclusion. "Complices" is an exceptional film with an intriguing narrative arc unfolding in an original manner.

This movie has an interesting narrative structure with a co-ed pair of middle-aged detectives (Emanuelle Devos, Gilbert Melki) investigating the murder of young male. This is skillfully cut together with the parallel flashback narrative of the young victim (Cyril Descoeurs) and his relationship with a fresh-faced teenage girl (Nina Meurisse). Their relationship starts out sweet and innocent, but he is a bisexual hustler, who in turn gets her involved in paid sexual encounters with various "respectable" but sleazy middle-age men in various generic-looking hotel rooms. The narrative structure is quite effective, even if the present-day narrative with mismatched male and female cops--who are both very attractive, yet strangely both single, and who have a sexual tension between them you could cut with a knife--is an extremely tiresome cliché from pretty much every police procedural movie and TV show you see these days. The OTHER narrative with the young couple works much better.

Cyril Descoeurs' character in a lesser movie would undoubtedly be portrayed as an evil "suitcase pimp"-type, leading an innocent girl astray. It always strikes me as very dishonest and unrealistic to portray a female this age as a wide-eyed innocent while a boy about the same age is portrayed as mustache-twirling villain. The boy here engages in paid sex along with the girl and he obviously genuinely cares about her (at one point he violently beats a sleazy middle-age client who abuses her). It also helps that we know from the beginning that HE at least is ultimately going to wind up a victim.

Nina Meurisse is a real revelation. She has an appealing girl-next-door wholesome look to her and is very talented, yet is clearly not afraid to take on a role that involves sex and nudity in every other scene. This movie kind of reminded me of the recent Francois Ozon misfire "Young and Beautiful". But the "teenage" girl in that looked suspiciously like a gorgeous fashion model (which the actress actually was) and her character simply did not have any particularly good reason to be engaging in prostitution. This is much, much more believable, and its largely thanks to the performance of Meurisse.

I don't want to oversell this movie, which is not exactly startling original, and is really only serviceable at an artistic filmmaking level. But I did enjoy it, largely because of the two young actors.

An advantage that American audiences have when viewing Euro films is that you regularly come across brilliant performances from actors you've never heard of. This rarely happens in Hollywood products because almost every popular American actor began as a child star. (DiCaprio, Gosling, dare I add Bale) Even the semi-talented kids get discovered & groomed early by Nickelodeon, pop music producers or the gazillion teen sitcoms, so by the time they appear on movie screens in a substantial role, you've seen their familiar faces countless times.

In Complices, we know from the start we'll see solid performances from veterans Melki & Devos, but who knew Descours & Meurisse would carry the film? And such excellent casting doesn't stop there. Even the smaller roles from Preiss, Ponsot & Kapone are on point.

I'm so tired of hearing other reviewers compare any film with a dead body to Twin Peaks. Films began with dead bodies long before David Lynch was even born. And the body that begins Complices makes Laura Palmer look as believable as Howdy Doody. Hats off to Hipaux & the effects crew for giving us a good corpse.

Mermoud & Arnold tell a simple but engaging story full of subtlety & subtext, only hinting at the character currents underneath. Watch Complices for the exquisite performances, but also to catch a glimpse of how tiny the French make their washing machines.

Interesting movie. Starts off looking like a whodunnit crime-drama, but pretty soon it is obvious that it is much more than that. Turns out to be a gritty human drama, with romance and murder thrown in.

Good plot. Decent direction, though there are a few periods where it drifts a bit. Good performances, especially from the young leads - Cyril Descours and Nina Meurisse.