Daringly lean thriller from co-writer/director Alice Winocour may not be up to much, but gets what it’s going after without insulting our intelligence or patience. Matthias Schoenaerts is the main event in the film, an Afghanistan-tested Special Units soldier (think Navy Seals level, but French) itching to get back in, but currently on a medical PTSD break. Filling in with other war-hardened vets on a temp job, he’s part of a Home Security detail working a big social event at the massive French estate of a Middle-East wheeler-dealer type making pacts & fortunes in the illegal gun trade as various shady characters take meetings during a lux all-day affair. He seems to have it all, including gorgeous international jet-setting wife Diane Kruger & requisite cute kid. But something’s ‘off’ about the whole package and Schoenaerts feels it in his bones . . . or is he simply mismanaging the regime of drugs he takes to control his symptoms? And when an unexpected trip out of the country leaves the wife & son in need of a bodyguard, the babysitting gig is too easy and well-paid to turn down. What no one knows is that a power-play is already in motion, the arms dealer being played, the wife & son left behind, possible collateral damage. Winocour has an uncanny ability to keep us informed and off-balance at one and the same time, she’s also a whiz at clear logistics in the big mansion, on the road (are we being followed?) and at a possible assassination setup at the beach. Mostly, it’s the wary intelligence, instinctual problem solving, muscular moves & scent of easy sexuality from Schoenaerts (boasting a very potent Steve McQueen vibe* if his PTSD doesn’t take him down first) that make this one work so well.
DOUBLE-BILL: *As plot-heavy as this is plot-light (the end here extremely cryptic), the Steve McQueen of Robert Wise’s THE SAND PEBBLES/’66 is the guy Schoenaerts mostly channels.
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