Le nouveau protocole

1st watched 2/12/2012 – 7 out of 10(Dir-Thomas Vincent): Controversial thriller about the drug industry using humans as guinea pigs to test new drugs before they hit the market. Specifically this movie is about it's effect on a man, and his son – who died from a car crash – while testing a drug. The movie starts showing clinical tests being done in Africa on young kids and then moves to the star – who receives a phone call about the demise of his son. He then gets a call from a woman, who we find out later is checking up on his son – fearing that he may run into issues with the drug company. They then meet up at a conference where the woman is escorted out after making a public scene against the company. The couple then start to work together to determine what happened to the young man who died. At first, there isn't a lot of trust between them, but upon seeing the danger the woman is in – he starts believing her. This movie is paced well, and takes a direct stab at an industry many people talk about, but we see very little in the movies about the issue. It is a unique movie in this sense and is also a good thriller that keeps you thinking up until the very end of the film. The only downfall is that it is very biased and it's obvious very quickly. All in all – if you can get around reading subtitles – this French film is a unique and enjoyable movie. And if you know French turn them off and enjoy!!

For reasons that only can be related to protect the crap the Hollywood movie industry produces this smart and not easy to digest movie did not get distribution while awful USA movies (non-independent) are shown in thousands of theatres.

This is not a matter of subtitles or commercial issues. European countries like France or Spain translate the dialogs in their own language and few theatres show the original version. This is the real FREEDOM, USA citizens do not have (though are being convinced of the contrary). On the contrary USA distributors; buy movies that are never shown because if they do people could first of all THINK something Hollywood is against and second could realize that out of the technical and production aspects USA movies are far from art; just plain formula repeated and remixed in every major title.

Now, about "LE NOUVEAU PROTOCOL"; Raoul Craft (the outstanding Clovic Cornillac) is notified about his son dead on car accident. The first 15 or 20 minutes deals with the tragedy and family sadness without almost using dialogs. During that period; Raoul is contacted by a women (always solid Marie-Josee Croze in a too complex character) that a medical laboratory was involved on the kids dead.

After the initial sorrow, a series of unclear events makes Raoul believe the woman and tries to find out what happened. Things get violent but in a completely unexpected way. The line between good and evil is blurred; as it is in real life.

It could be fare to compare this movie with the CONSTANT GARDENER (the same subject matter); however while that movie had a more poetic / romantic approach, this one is pretty complex and never gives an easy answer to anything.

Thomas Vincent seems here André Cayatte's psychic son: a director who takes the law in his own hands;we do need someone like André Cayatte,this director the Nouvelle Vague was always putting down.

The subject is absorbing and the movie is up to scratch in its first half:the scene in the hospital where the dead son's mobile's keeps on ringing (spooky ,huh?);the press conference;and to top it all ,the sequence in the café where a scientist explains to a bewildered Cornillac how we are all potential sick persons and that there's a lot of money to be made ;developing countries ,we could help them ,but they are not interesting commercially speaking: rich countries are the gold mine.Molière was a visionary when he wrote his "Malade Imaginaire" in 1693!Too bad the character disappears after such terrifying lines.

The second part is less interesting ,consisting of chases,abduction attempts ,violence ,in short,your average thriller.The human side,present in the first half ,has almost disappeared and I find Cornillac's playing rather wooden -maybe when he is dubbed ,it's less embarrassing- Jean Reno's style.His female partner 's is not very subtle either and is not sparing of gestures and words (she's almost always shouting).

What is definitely lacking is details about the young victim;we know almost nothing about this unfortunate young lad and the final "unexpected" revelation does not make much sense out of context.

Typical subsidised French movie. The premise was enough for the whole thing to get the green-light, but it's really a flimsy story. Of course that means we had an untalented director attached very early in development (it takes a lot of duds in France for untalented people to be phased out of film production) so, to put it more kindly, with a director who only delivered widely unimpressive flicks in the past no wonder the whole movie flies below the radar of quality. Yuck, it's a stealth movie designed to nose-dive into oblivion.

Too bad for the leads, Clovis Cornillac and Marie-Josée Croze are both talented and they do quite well with one-dimensional characters who are overwhelmingly passive, at a loss and irresolute for most of the movie. Who could then turn a vaguely good premise into gold, or bronze yet, with only a handful of rusty nails? It's really sad to see a whole feature budget swallowed by something which barely looks like a mediocre TV movie.

While the movie really begins intriguing enough and has a tension overall that is decent/good enough, it still never achieves to become great. The main actor is someone you might have seen before, he has played plenty of roles and he's doing a great job here, trying to elevate the material.

But the David vs. Goliath thing isn't as well executed as it could be. The movie trying to be a bit more clever than it actually is. Even the ending can't change this. I liked it, though I'm guessing that some might find it even more disappointing than the film up to that point. Still the acting and the tension are good and I have seen worse thrillers.