Catherine Frot, one of France's most popular actresses is best known for her roles in comedies ("Un air de famille", "Le dîner de cons", "Les soeurs fâchées"... ). But "making 'em laugh" is far from being her only talent: the genial, moon-faced, falsely naive, slightly offbeat comedian can occasionally venture into a more serious, not to say tragic, register, in dramas or thrillers (Folcoche, the heartless mother in "Vipère au poing", the music teacher in "The Page Turner", the distraught mother in "L'empreinte de l'ange"... ). "Coup d'éclat",her last film to-date, clearly belongs to the drama category, but the novelty is that it allows Catherine Frot to don a police uniform for the first time in her career. The film made by second -time director José Alcala ("Alex", 2005), indeed revolves around Fabienne Bourrier, an idealistic police officer who is growing weary with not doing THE job she initially enrolled for, the bulk of it consisting mostly in arresting undocumented aliens (a task imposed by the French government for electoralist reasons) instead of concentrating on keeping real criminals from achieving real mischief. It is precisely during such a raid that, one night in the harbor, she catches Olga, a Kazakh prostitute, who begs her to let her go as she has left her four-year-old son alone at home... After Olga escapes her attention and is found dead, Fabienne takes it upon herself to investigate the affair...
As can be seen, there is more to "Coup d'éclat" than a standard cops and robbers flick. It does have police forces, the mob, a mystery, violence, a car chase and a final showdown but José Alcala has other ambitions, the first one being to give his main actress the opportunity to display a hitherto hidden part of her talent. And it must be said that Catherine Frot, always ready for new experiences, takes on the challenge gleefully, getting under the skin of her character. See how she runs (unlike in any other film of her filmography!), holds a gun and fires (just like a professional!).
Alcala also makes a point of providing Fabienne with a strong psychological background. Living alone, with no husband or child to take care of or to support her (the script will reveal the reason for that), she must unwillingly share her intimacy with her mother, a displeasing woman at the end of her life. And as this uncomfortable situation gets grafted on her questioning about her job and her role in society you can guess that Captain Bourrier is not the usual crime film cop but a tridimensional human being, which adds value to an otherwise simply entertaining story.
Moreover José Alcala manages, through the character of Fabienne, to make a statement against one of the worst drifts of our society: the hunt for undocumented migrants and the tragedies it entails, just to get the votes of the least enlightened among the citizens. Luckily the message remains discreet and never gets in the way of the action.
All in all, an interesting movie, deftly mixing action and reflection, psychology and political commitment. Well constructed, "Coup d'éclat" just marches along to an unsettling ending, making good use in the meantime of natural settings such as Sète and its harbor, Marseillan and the oyster-farming Pond of Thau in the South of France.
Catherine Frot is perfect in her role but she is not the only one to be praised: Karim Seighar creates the rather mysterious figure of an Algerian worker linked in some way to the victim ; Marie Raynal is energetic in the role of Carole (the dead prostitute's friend) and Liliane Rovere is brilliant as usual as Fabienne's sick and annoying mother.
A worthwhile French style film noir.
