Atirador de Elite

Chief Inspector Mattei (Daniel Auteuil) and his team identifies bank robbers In Paris. They keep the group under surveillance and when they heist a bank, they are ready to arrest the criminals. However, the sniper Vincent Kaminski (Mathieu Kassovitz) surprises the detectives and the gang escapes. Soon Mattei and his team arrest Vincent that does not accept to snitch his friends. When Vincent flees from the prison, Mattei hunts him down in a cat and mouse game and learns what happened to his son that died in Afghanistan.

"La guetteur" is a French thriller with an excellent storyline and promising beginning with a fantastic shooting after the bank heist. The cast is also great, with Daniel Auteuil, Mathieu Kassovitz and even a cameo of Fanny Ardant. Unfortunately the screenplay has several pointless subplots and becomes a mess from the moment Mattei learns what happened to his son in Afghanistan to the disappointing conclusion with Mattei letting Vincent go without any reasonable explanation. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Atirador de Elite" ("Sniper")

Freshly absorbing and intriguing, confusing at times, but eventually gets his goal: keep the edge of their seats. Occasionally gives the impression that the movie tries to tell two different stories or more and some subjects seem not to transcend in the development of the story... say that the ending was predictable, which is hard, I am of the idea that would have given more credibility to the story, the fact that criminals were in some Balkan region and not an Italian, however, at the end get absorb you. A good work of Michele Placido (aka Corrado Cattani), but can still offer something more, has the ability. Great collaboration of Mathieu Kassovitz (The Crimson Rivers).

Daniel Auteuil is one of the best actors of his generation and beyond worldwide. He not only resembles phisically to Robert DeNiro but his talent as an actor also shows huge resemblance to DeNiro's talent. Thus it is worth watching him in every role he plays. And he is one of the most versatile actors playing cops, historic figures, everymens and you name it. This film is a thriller worth watching it.

I gave it 5 and that is generous, considering this film does not achieve many of the goals it sets itself: it is not really suspenseful, the characterization is often vague, the plot is not clear at many points (too many characters don't improve matters). There is a Hollywood gloss over this picture that depresses me; surely a French film can call upon a tradition of thrillers dating back to the post-war years: Le salaire de la peur for example. I thought of Melville of course (Le deuxieme soufflé and Le cercle rouge) and Alain Corneau (Police Python 357). The kids who would troop off to see this one will be quickly bored.

There is little point in trying to single out any of the actors for praise or blame; they seem interchangeable in their roles. Daniel Auteuil looks glum most of the time--did they not pay him enough? Olivier Gourmet from those great Dardenne movies promised much, but his part was clumsily written and not really understandable.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

Detective Mattei (Daniel Auteuil) is on the trail of Vincent Kaminski (Mathieu Kassovitz) a rooftop sniper who took out a bunch of police officers while a daring bank robbery was in progress. But as he digs deeper in to the case, he uncovers even more dark, disturbing secrets.

It always seems to be the case that the continentals seem to make the better quality films, in terms of writing and general production values, and if their market doesn't get the best exposure, it certainly receives the greatest critical acclaim and there are quite a few who want to imitate it. They seem to come up with all the original ideas, that's for sure, and that's something Hollywood certainly can't claim. This familiar truth may be the case with The Lookout, even if it's not maybe the best example, perhaps.

It's an intricate, absorbing thriller, quite faultless but still unremarkable, but you can't help but get the feeling that someone, sometime will try and do it again. ***