Polisse * * * ½
The toll child-abuse takes on its victims has been much publicized through social services and child-protective agencies, but what of the toll taken on those working through child services to end the abuse? Counseling and rehabilitative therapy are available to the children who undergo these horrors. Rehabilitation can only begin when the horror ends though, so there can be none for those protective workers whose horrors never cease -wading through the muck for children each day. Polisse (the winner of 2011's Jury Prize at Cannes) examines the effects of being the rescuers on the "muck-waders".
It begins as a startlingly desensitized film, glazing over masses of victim-stories depicted in blunt, sexually explicit, and borderline vulgar sequences. These initial scenes are overly long and seem uninvolved and emotionally disconnected from the plethora of abuses depicted and described -observing them only at a distance (from a bird's-eye-view). This is all to the film's point though. It overwhelms the audience with what child protective units are overwhelmed with daily, demonstrating that detachment is the only salvation from breakdown. Then comes the breakdown.
The unit that the film follows gets involved with the case of a missing child and his unstable mother, it is the first time the film has really lingered on a specific story, allowing its audience to become vested in its outcome. Partying after the team's success at locating the mother and child, Fred begins to stand out from the group as notably passionate, involved, not detached. And when a mother comes in with her child wanting to find a shelter for him, but knowing that none will accept her, it is Fred who breaks down and bursts into his chiefs office demanding his help. From this point on, the audience is involved, Fred has established that he is involved, and the film itself seems involved, no longer hiding behind the facade of detachment.
It must be noted that post-"becoming involved", Polisse does still revert to a few detached montages to reiterate the magnitude of countless crimes still being committed outside of the ones it has now honed in on for the plot. As the audience familiarizes itself with the protective unit, other characters emerge as notable in addition to Fred. Like Iris and her partner; Iris -professional, desensitized, and guarded. While her partner allows herself to still be vulnerable, to get involved. The world knows the stories of the abused, but when protective workers hold to professionalism, quell passion to safe-guard their own sanity, and hide behind detached facades... what happens to them?
The Big Picture * * *
The Big Picture is to The Talented Mr. Ripley, what Salt is to the Bourne movies. For anyone who has seen none of the above: Salt, though bearing a similar plotline to them, is a lesser film than any in the Bourne series. And so is The Big Picture a similar but lesser film than The Talented Mr. Ripley, though it is not without its merits. Like Ripley, it centers around the story of a man who takes on anothers identity. The Big Picture lacks that film's genrification; where Ripley was glamorized and stylistic, The Big Picture is more grounded in reality -that's not to say it's gritty though. It is well shot and scored and has a polished look and picturesque settings to boot (as the film's hero hides out in a remote but beautiful village, scenes of Clooney's American hiding out in much the same way come to mind).
Romain Duris carries the film with his portrayal of Paul Exben, a well-to-do family man who opted for job security over his passion for photography long ago. Duris exudes a boyishness not many actors his age posses. This serves him well in touching scenes with his young children, and it's even more impressive that he does away with it when the tumult of his circumstances demand its absence. When a sordid mess of circumstances involving adultery and a fist-fight gone wrong cause Paul to flee his life, he finds himself unencumbered and free to find the man he thought he's lost inside himself so long ago. But when his past resurfaces, did his rediscovery of passion mean anything at all?
The film does a nice job with its pacing and with maintaining an element of suspense throughout. Every move Paul makes seems critical and of the moment and Duris clearly demonstrates this in his performance. Ironically and wisely, the film never does show us "the big picture" -keeping Paul at the center of every scene and the audience never knowing more than he does (thus enhancing our claustrophobia as things close in on him and our empathy for him in his whirlwind existence).
Check back soon for my four-star review of Monsieur Lehzar!
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