MR 73 - A Última Missão

In grimy Marseilles, drunken disheveled Detective Louis Schneider is arrested for hijacking a bus. The driver told him to sit down which got him to pull out his gun. A car accident left his daughter dead and his wife despondent. He is relegated to work the night shift. Unrepetent killer Charles Subra is getting probation. Survivor Justine Maxence approaches arresting detective Schneider from those years ago for help. There is a serial killer on the loose. There is also a cover-up and Schneider is hounded to quit.

Daniel Auteuil is acting through his scruffy appearance and his dangling cigarettes. He is so good at being world weary that the movie in general is drained of life. It's all grim and crumbling without any tension. The disjointed storytelling with the constant flashbacks to the same incident gets a bit tiresome. This movie has the moody style but the flow needs to be more compelling. I think I almost like this movie.

This movie should not be rated for its plot, or the good guys vs bad guys, or any other standard used to rate normal movies. This movie is an homage. An homage to the suffering, the courage and the lives of the real people on which the story is based.

Every aspect of this film breathes with the same deep respect for what happened. The reality it brings into the room takes your breath away... You cannot watch this movie and escape its grasp.

Daniel Auteuil and everyone else in the cast did their jobs with dignity. They played their roles the way they should be played and the aftertaste is bitter... but filled with reverence.

Watch this movie without reading the plot. Let it happen to you, expect nothing and allow yourself to care.

I'm sure you'll agree; 10 out of 10. Easily.

I discovered this brutal but entertaining thriller checking all directed movies by Olivier Marchal. I don't regret because it was never boring. There were plenty twists and dramatic moments.

The story is built up carefully with dark and violent pictures. There are some nudity scenes to keep high the attention... I have only one critic: the identity of the killer could have been revealed with much more suspense.

Toward the end it was so far emotionally that I had nearly tears in my eyes.

Daniel Auteuil and all the other actors delivered a superb and cool performance. Finally Olivier Marchal presented a great thriller worth watching.

MR 7/10

As i was thrilled by the action, acting and dark side of MARCHAL' s "36", i decided not to miss his next film. there is less action like" Heat" but more reflection and gruesome images, like in SEVEN, if you like. Auteuil and the girl are perfect. you feel for both. you love to hate the baddies as we all did in "36", but it just shows that in the police force, of any nationality by the way, there are some who do their jobs for the right reasons and some who have lost faith, and the notion of good. i loved the ending and i will not spoil it for you. a great plot , 2 to be exact. it is refreshing to watch a film noir as good as,if not better than when they first came out 50 years ago. Auteuil is a great one for those. Depardieu in the next movie again would be the icing on Marchal' s cake.

In Marseilles, the discredited and alcoholic Detective Schneider (Daniel Auteuil) hijacks a bus and forces the bus driver with a gun to drive him home. He is arrested by the swat force and his washed up career in the police department practically ends. Schneider is removed from the investigation of a serial-killer that is committing hideous crimes against women and assigned to a bureaucratic work in the night-shift in the precinct. Through glimpses from his recollections, Schneider recalls the tragic accident that killed his daughter and left his wife trapped to a bed and life support system. Meanwhile, the sick criminal Charles Subra (Philippe Nahon), who killed the parents of two girls many years ago, convinces the probation committee in the prison that he has found God and is regenerated and may be released. Justine (Olivia Bonamy), one of the daughters that survived, has never overcome the trauma of her loss and is worried with the possibility of the freedom of the criminal. When Schneider discovers the identity of the serial-killer, he finds also the corruption in the high command of the police, and he decides to go to his last mission on Earth in his descent to Hell.

The impressive "MR 73" is a bleak, sordid and realistic detective story from the writer and director Oliver Marchal, who is also the author of "36 Quai des Orfèvres" and "Gangsters". This movie is a dramatic story, describing in a slow pace the descent to Hell of a detective after a tragedy caused by his love affair with a colleague. The police department is filthy and corrupt, and we see that these qualities apparently are worldwide, and not only in Third World countries. The performance of Daniel Auteuil worth an Oscar nomination and the conclusion is the only moment of hope along the whole gruesome tale. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "MR 73 – A Última Mussão" ("MR 73 – The Last Mission")