Noces rouges

Thriller/whodunnit in the style of Vanished By The Lake and Killer By The Lake. All three co-star Lannick Gautrey. Here, he is Vincent, a police captain in charge of inquiries. It seems he must untangle a number of interwoven story-lines that have all brought shock and misery to the community.

All avenues lead to a mysterious car/motorcycle accident that occurred years earlier. It was the crash that caused the death of his brother.

Who was the driver of the car that fateful night? Why did Vincent's girlfriend Alice suddenly disappear without an explanation? And who is responsible for a recent spate of deaths, including the young bride (Alice's sister) promenading on the seafront? One minute happy and resplendent in her wedding dress and seconds later falling to the rocks below.

On the face of it, the bride committed suicide, but suspicious circumstances prompt Vincent to burn the midnight oil in search of a guilty party. It's a tortuous investigation; the families concerned are known to him, so some uncomfortable moments are headed his way. Indeed, his own personal involvement ought to have disbarred him from handling the case, yet recent events have stirred up powerful memories and a strong desire to uncover the truth.

The intricate plot is thoughtfully and expertly played out in a series of clever, if slightly implausible twists. The drama never turns stale thanks to a whirlpool of family turmoil that serves to bring the characters to life and reveal some dark, lurking secrets.

If there was one minor grumble to be had, it would relate to that overplayed device that scriptwriters simply can't resist ... the wrist watch or necklace dropped at the scene of a crime! Such clumsy criminals, always! - 8.4/10.

I watched this with English subtitles over 2 nights - we're locked down and I felt too lazy to concentrate on the French dialogue. TV5 Monde had done a good job on the translation, a couple of slip ups and spelling mistakes, but they were fine overall.

The settings were fabulous right on the sea and the houses and workplaces were glamorous.

You have to take the story with a pinch of salt and there were a couple of sub plots that didn't ring true, but overall this was a jolly romp right up to the revealing of who had done the supposed murders.

To conclude, a pleasant four and a half hours which no one should regret spending.

Murder, suicide, accidental death, multiple cases of blackmail and bribery, terminal disease; it all kicks off in French thriller 'A Deadly Union' after the Cote d'Azur wedding that its title aludes to. Unfortunately, it's fundamentally quite silly, a contemporary version of Agatha Christie where everyone has motive and no-one can be trusted to be telling the truth. Lannick Gautry plays the lead detective, as he did in the recent 'Killer by the Lake'; in both I found him an underwhleming protagonist. At least in that series the underlying plot had less of the feel of bad soap opera.

The French drive on the right. Therefore the motor cyclist, who was on riding on the left was to blame for the accident. Why was supposedly the driver of the van prosecuted and jailed ? Silly mistake !!

At the beginning this looked like a serious police procedural/who done it. Quickly, it became apparent that this was a weekday, mid-afternoon soap opera.

Redeeming features: better camera work than your usual soap, spectacular scenery (the calanques SE of Marseille).

The ending was a disappointment - loose ends, no justice, no arrests, no resolution; it just faded away.

You can watch much better shows than this.