La Marque Des Anges-Miserere

Grangé's books could only be adapted by platforms like Netflix who aren't scared to make it darker. Otherwise you only get average thrillers packed with some action and a vaguely gloomy mood: just like Miserere.

I did not expect much from this french crime flick. Depardieu is not here at his best, not at his worst either. So is Joey Starr. Adapted from a Jean Christophe Grangé novel, which I don't quite remember exactly the story, the movie is not really boring but so predictable...Only made for the widest audience possible. Of course, it avoids all the JC GRangé's atmosphere that we find in his books. But I admit that these ones are very hard to be faithful to. They are very dark, violent, cruel, depressing. All films made from Grangé's work were never faithful. None of them, even LES RIVIERES POURPRES, the first one. No one was close to these novels. Books very complex too.

But this film is full of clichés that make it after all an adequate time waster. No more.

When a truck trafficking children is intercepted in the desert by the army, one of the traffickers is captured. Interpol agent Frank Salek (Joey Starr) comes to the police station with his partner to interrogate the prisoner. However, the man lures his partner and commits suicide in the toilet. Frank, who is addicted in pills and is haunted by his past, finds three names in the prisoner's cellular that is broken.

In France, the President of the International Court Laura Bernheim (Marthe Keller) is chasing the Blackstream Army, an evil organization protected by worldwide authorities.

In Paris, the retired and awarded detective Lionel Kasdan (Gérard Depardieu), who grieves the loss of his wife, is summoned by the parochial priest since the regent of his choir Goetz Willhen (Joe Sheridan) has been found dead in the church. The coroner has found foot steps of children around the corpse with stain of blood. Kasdan decides to conduct his own investigation and finds that Goetz was Chilean. He also discovers that Goetz was homosexual and had an affair with a young man named Naciro (Kévi Meffre).

When Frank learns that Goetz is one of the men in his list, he travels to Paris and meets Kasdan in the beginning of the most unlikely partnership. Together they discover an evil plan to eliminate Ms. Laura Bernheim.

"La Marque des Anges – Miserere" is another engaging French thriller with a complex story. This movie is underrated in IMDb, maybe because of the complexity of the plot that has many details. There are also clichés do give the necessary dynamics to the plot. It is always a pleasure to see Gérard Depardieu that has the decency to perform a retired detective; therefore he is perfect for the role. This is the first movie that I see with Joey Starr and he has a great performance in the role of a tough and traumatized agent. "La Marque des Anges – Miserere" is not a masterpiece and has flaws, but is above many other thrillers; therefore it deserves a chance to be watched. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Assassinato Em 4 Atos" ("Murder in 4 Acts")

Gerard Depardieu is always worth watching. Even (or maybe especially) if the character he is portraying has many flaws and faults. Being a cop and having to work with an (unlikely) partner just adds to the whole thing. Both lone wolfs have to overcome their fears and their ego to work together. It's not that original to pair two guys like that, but both of them make it work.

The mystery element (there is a reason this "sounds" a bit church-like) is more welcome and delivers, while not pitch perfect at least on a very good note. I won't go into details (many things will be obvious and foreseeable), but you might have fun watching this good versus evil game ... especially, when sometimes its not clear who is what