Skunkyrate Gripping story with well-crafted characters

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Raymond Sierra The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

gridoon2018 "Le Couperet" certainly gets off to a gripping start, and more or less remains gripping for the duration. It is by turns funny, shocking, and thought-provoking (it was probably not Gavras' intention, but it reminded me of Woody Allen's "Crimes And Misdemeanors"). It is also quite prophetic, considering that most European economies are in a much worse state in 2015 than they were in 2005. There is great attention to detail, from the effect of the gun's recoil to a man who has never tried shooting before, to murderous activities being almost exposed by random events involving people who have no idea what's going on. However, at a full two hours, it may be slightly too long. And the very ending is infuriatingly abrupt. *** out of 4.

Bento de Espinosa I'm a big fan of Costa-Gavras' political films, they really are the best in their genre. I was taken by surprise by this film, because I had no idea Gavras can make funny films also, since he normally is so political/critical.This movie is a delicious dark comedy! It's intelligent and thematizes a current and therefore important subject. All actors are very good, but José Garcia really is something special! I don't remember having seen him before and am happy to see a "new" funny face. He is not only funny, but also very natural, believable. I like that he looks Spanish/Portuguese, being it a French movie.A man that can make political movies, but also such good comedies, like Gavras does, really is a gifted man! I'll watch this movie again.

andrabem Costa Gavras is a master of the political film. Political films in general are not my cup of tea. They try to convey some kind of message to the public, and they do it by portraying the persons in a stylized way, losing in depth in the process. People are portrayed realistically but their conflicts are simplified because the political film intends to portray society and its problems - unemployment, hunger, class exploitation and so on - in other words, they talk about the big (lack of bread, for instance) and forget the small (emotions like loneliness and sadness, for instance).Many political films concerned about their objectivity are quite emotionless, or else their emotions are one-sided - bad and ugly live here, beauty and love live there, or the other way around.FEW POLITICAL FILMS are able to bridge this gap: to talk about society and at the same time not forget the individual man and his/her very complex universe and contradictions. SOME OF THESE FILMS ARE the masterpieces of neorealism: "Ladri di Bicicletta" and "Umberto D" by Vittorio de Sica, "Los Olvidados" by Buñuel and many others.Costa Gavras doesn't reach this goal. His films are efficient and convey their message to the public, but they lack warmth."Le Couperet" is nonetheless an interesting film - a man that works as a chemist loses his job and after 2 years of unemployment decides to kill whoever stands in his way to get another job - so he places an ad of an imaginary enterprise in the newspaper offering a chemist job (his professional area) and rents a post box to read the answers he gets. He reads all the résumés and proceeds to kill all the people that are equal or more qualified than him - so that in the end he'll get the job because he will be the only remaining choice. All the while he will go on living normally with his family. He will suffer emotional crises, his marriage will become strained but no one will suspect anything at all of his alternative activities.The film, after all, is very entertaining and gives a sad picture of France (and Western Europe I would say), suffering economic crisis and rising doubts. Is it possible with the globalization to maintain a very expensive Social Welfare and have to face a growing economic erosion? In USA (as far as I know), for instance, some unemployed people live on the streets or under the bridges. In France and Western Europe, unemployed people are still taken care of. Till when? Many enterprises are closing or cutting expenses (that means firing people).Costas Gavras films are good because they make questions about the world in which we live, they make us think, but his films don't really touch me - I would say they provide food for thought but not food for the heart.

Carlos Maybe the best 'noir' movie I've seen in the last years, and definitively the best Donald Westlake adaptation so far, "Arcadia" is the story of a man obsessed with a job, who thinks that the only way to get it is killing every candidate who can be better than him, and must cope with his many mistakes and family problems. It sounds like a tragedy, or a drama, but it is the best piece of black (or not so black) humor combined with noir I remember, which is surprising: I didn't know that Costa-Gavras had so much sense of humor. There are many symbols, allegories, but above it all, it mentions every controversial and denounce topic in existence for just one, two or three minutes, just to mention it. The result is, incredibly and amazingly, funny, intellectually engaging, extremely suspenseful (the results of every situation and, at last, the end of the movie are unpredictable) and a master class of narrative progression, at least until the last 20 minutes, where the movie drags. But until then it is a flawless masterpiece, and it deserves to be watched over and over again. José García is another surprise, a very good comedian.