Have Mercy on Us All (2007)

Director Régis Wargnier gained international fame (and a somewhat controversial Best Foreign Film Oscar) in 1992 for "Indochine", but 15 years later he made what can best be described as a b-movie that in most countries went (and deservedly so) straight to DVD. It's not unwatchable, but it is mediocre. The story lacks propulsion for so long (the film runs nearly two full hours) that when the plot finally starts twisting and turning, it's hard to summon much interest. I must admit that it took me two different sittings to complete the viewing. The cast is good (this was Michel Serrault's last film), although "Indochine"'s star Linh Dan Pham has only a decorative role here. ** out of 4.

The story is taken from a novel in a series by Fred Vargas. Inspector Adamsberg figures in most, but not all of those novels, each of which has an odd plot. I felt that I knew Adamsberg from the several novels, six in all. José Garcia is perfect. Adamsberg is vague, lonely, uncommunicative, and – at times – brilliant. He would be an irritating fellow to work with or for. Only his lieutenant Adrien Danglard has the patience and persistence to put up with his eccentricities, one of which is an inability to remember people's names, including his subordinates and colleagues. Perhaps the author intends this feature to indicate his unwillingness to commit to others. Adamsberg is at least as remote and annoying as Sherlock Holmes, but in different ways.The film makes the local community a character in the story. The Bar Viking, the plaza, the boarding house, the regulars all add to the texture of the story, and to some degree determine events. There are chases for those who must see movement and color on the screen to stay tuned, one over rooftops and another on roller skates. There is a shoot out for those who must have noise, though it seemed to add nothing to either plot or character.But the center of the film is Adamsberg, brooding and intense without saying a word very often. It is an unusual approach these days to rely on acting, rather than shouting, guns, or special effects, but it works. Garcia is compassionate and dedicated, but he is also guarded and vulnerable. He makes mistakes, but presses on. He does not defy authority, but occasionally asserts it slowly and steadily.When Adamsberg's famed intuition does occur, he is as confused by it, as the viewer is, but he works through it, as do we along with him.I hope the film leads to more the Vargas books being filmed and that José Garcia plays Adamsberg again, and again. This film was the last credit for the great Michel Serrault. He gave us much to think about over the years and a great deal of pleasure, too.

French novelist Fred Vargas (female) is adapted for film here.In this case, the flaws of the film are a reflection of the film maker rather than the source material.The lead playing Adamsberg is a fine actor, but miscast here. Not enough ragged edges to do justice to the character in the novel. Camille is slighted in the script, and cast as an Asian woman -- not at all how I pictured her.The cast of potential villains works well, as do most the supporting characters. The action direction is merely competent, not masterful.Vargas's books are great. Look them up if you can.

Yet another entertaining policier from France and one of the last films made by the late and very much lamented Michel Serrault, which would be reason enough to see it but as it turns out that reason is superfluous because the film stands on its own two feet as an excellent thriller with an unusual storyline which begins with mysterious signs painted on doorways and embraces the introduction into Paris of bubonic plague to which no one is immune least of all cop Lucas Belvaux, taking a break from directing to play second lead here. Olivier Gourmet is a modern version of the old Town Crier - and though I go to Paris several times each year I've yet to see one, although that doesn't mean they don't exist - who collects letters daily and then reads them out publicly, unaware that they are being 'treated' with the plague virus. The mystery, of course, is Who and Why and we get there in the end but not before a well-balanced mixture of the cerebral and physical such as the sequence where a suspect escapes on roller blades and is pursued on foot and by car or the linking of the cerebral in the shape of Michel Serrault and the physical represented by Marie Gillain - in her third film in the salles this week - who almost chokes him to death before herself being pursued underneath the supports of a bridge from which she eventually plunges into the Seine. All in all a very satisfactory thriller.