Toutes peines confondues

deville's thriller is very fascinating to the last moment. the whole movie is held in a mystic blue as is the picture's atmosphere. conclusions and story line equal each other in sharpness and very sexy mathilda may adds an superb erotic touch to it. no explosions or dumb Hollywood shootings disturb the intelligent logic plot at any point. every moment of the movie feels right, the director never looses his line or control. the male leads bruel and dutronc deliver great performances as well. in my eyes this is clearly one of the 10 best french films of the 90ies. it should be your first choice, if you like straight intelligent stories created by brains like mrs. highsmith.

"Toutes Peines Confondues" begins with some promise (if somewhat confusingly), as it runs through the events that bring a cop (Patrick Bruel) and a criminal (Jacques Dutronc) together. But after the first 20 minutes or so, the film seems to lose its way - and its sense of purpose. There is so much small talk and so many word games between the two men that at times you may wonder if they are flirting and if that's the subtext of the film, which is further marred by the distasteful treatment of its secondary female character (Sophie Broustal). The acting is good by all and there is some nice scenery, mostly in Switzerland. ** out of 4.