Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

philipbn Often French films use Anglo-American genres to interesting effect. This was as true of "A bout de soufflé" / "Breathless" and the cop movies of that period as it is here. I don't know Beauvois' (the director's) work very well, but here, as several comments have pointed out, he is using the conventions of the contemporary Anglo-Am "procedural" crime dramas (especially the various Helen Mirren ones). To me, the film succeeds and is quite enjoyable, largely thanks to very strong and striking performances by Jalil Lespert as the "young lieutenant" Antoine Derouere of the title, and Nathalie Baye in the role of his commanding officer, Commandant Vaudieu.Both these actors are terrific. Lespert was great in the taut labor drama "Human Resources" (1999) and Baye is of course a major figure. With a fine supporting cast, they develop very strong characters and a moving drama that doesn't heroize or fetishize the police apparatus (as Anglo-American procedural films almost invariably do), but rather humanizes it and emphasizes the suffering and loss that it involves. Rather than magically resolving and banishing fears and social responsibility by projecting responsibility for crime onto irrational others, as Anglo-American police dramas do, this film recognizes the irreducible problems that police workers face, and dramatizes the lives of realistically-developed characters, not the fantasy figures that populate most dramas of this kind.So yes, the film does refer to Anglo-Am procedural dramas and the Helen-Mirren type of character, but it develops these in very interesting ways that go beyond the Anglo-Am subgenre. Lespert and Baye deliver very strong performances, and the film is a good illustration of how some French directors and writers can take popular genres and give them twists that would be difficult to find in the English-language versions. No fantasy explosions or violence- or cadaver- porn, but a moving drama about human experience in a sadly violent social order.Also, a great strong role for a middle-aged woman, which one doesn't see every day. This seemed to me one of Baye's stronger recent films.

gradyharp Director Xavier Beauvois, with the intelligent and sensitive script he co-wrote with Cédric Anger, Guillaume Bréaud and Jean-Eric Troubat, allows us, the viewers, to look inside the minds and lives of those people who commit to police work in a manner that pays homage to a maligned group and reinstates our visceral support to the spectrum of on the edge terror mixed with spaces of ennui that these people endure. LA PETIT LIEUTENANT is not a crime film: it is a deeply touching inside view of the men and women who protect us.Opening with well-staged Le Havre Police Academy graduation images Beauvois focuses on newly graduated Antoine Derouère (Jalil Lespert) as he says goodbye to his family and his wife Julie (Bérangère Allaux), a school teacher who pleads with Antoine not to leave Le Havre for Paris, the destination Antoine seeks to prove his desire for an active detective career. The kind but inexperienced Antoine takes up residence in Paris and is assigned to a homicide unit with equally inexperienced young men who learn the ropes of owning a gun, the embarrassment of performance problems at the shooting range, the awkward first 'arrests' and interrogations, and the endless hours of sitting at a desk waiting for activity. Newly assigned as the head of Antoine's unit is Commandant Caroline Vaudieu (the extraordinary actress Nathalie Baye) who has just come off a two year sabbatical to recover from alcoholism and the associated death of her son from meningitis. The manner in which these people bond is quiet and sensitive and when finally a case comes to their attention - a man found dead in the canal - the force joins begins what they all need to do: the killer must be found.Clues are explored, people are traced, and Antoine and Vandieu form a particularly close bond, Antoine reminding Vandieu of the son she has lost and Vandieu providing the model for his career. Tension mounts as the criminals are pursued, coincidences occur and a tragedy cracks the bond of the group, affecting each member of the small force immeasurably. It is this very human happening and its effects that wind the movie down to moments of painful acceptance of the life of police people.The entire cast is first rate and provides ensemble acting that is among the finest on screen. But the portrayal by Nathalie Baye is so multifaceted, embracing the inner trauma of personal losses not only of those she loves but also of her own sense of dignity as she faithfully attends AA meetings, that her performance is triumphant. Jalil Lespert also captures the fine line between innocence and experience that makes his portrait of a new detective not only completely credible but also one that leaves a mark on the heart. The direction and the cinematography by Caroline Champetier keep the film nearly monochromatic, the only color that is left to shock us for a brief moment is the red blood at moments of tension. And the lack of a musical score keeps the tone of the humanity of the film intact, never reducing it to a bombastic Hollywood chase and kill film. This is a little jewel of a film that deserves a very wide audience. Highly Recommended. In French, Polish, and Russian with English subtitles. Grady Harp

Chris Knipp There's nothing very original about a rookie police officer from the provinces fresh out of police academy on his first assignment in Paris tackling a homicide case, yet director Xavier Beauvois; his star, the experienced Nathale Baye (who got a César for Best Actress for this role); and the other actors, some rookies, others veterans, have made something so fresh, exiting, and touching out of this material you almost feel as if nobody made a flic (cop) flick in France before – though of course such things are a longtime specialty there. Beauvois' Le Petit lieutenant simply shows that the French really know how to make movies. It doesn't matter how familiar the genre is, they can create something with texture and authenticity out of it.For me the rich feel Beauvois brings to his seemingly conventional material begins with the fact that there's no background music – it gives events on screen an unadorned quality – and with the way Beauvois, who's still in his thirties, puts his own basic experience into the story. Antoine (Jalil Lespert), the "petit lieutenant," the rookie, grew up in Normandy dreaming of being a cop in Paris where the great crimes are solved, he says – inspired by watching movies too. Beauvois grew up in Normandy himself, dreaming the same kind of dreams, watching movies, only the dreams were dreams of going to Paris where the great movies are made. Make the simple equation: Crimes+movies=crime movies and you've got a director who's making a parable about his own life.Caroline Vaudieu (Baye), the Inspector who chooses Antoine for her crime unit, is returning to work on the street again from a long period of the alcoholism that blighted both Beauvois' father's and his own life. Twelve-step recovery and addiction are felt and understood in the film. The AA meetings Caroline attends are in real AA meeting rooms with real alcoholics on screen. Caroline and Antoine are linked in ways that are felt, not contrived. She lost her son to meningitis nine years ago and Antoine's the age her son would be if he'd lived. Antoine's elementary school teacher wife has stayed in Normandy and now he has a room in Paris. He and Caroline share lonely lives; both are making a new start. And the casting is close to home in multiple ways: Beauvois, who also acts in the film as one of the crime team, Morbé, has cast Jalil's actor father Jean and brother Yaniss as his father and brother and his actress wife Bérangère Allaux as his wife.The opening scenes of Antoine's graduation from police academy and being embraced and congratulated by his family, and the elaborate procedure by which the assignments are handed out to the new graduates, are moments that in other hands might seem routine, but here they fairly bristle with authenticity. Such realism takes time to achieve. Eventually Le Petit lieutenant is going to become exciting, even hair-raising, but it doesn't have the BANG! BANG! opening sequences dear to US directors, nor are those openings about Antoine simply routine: they're the beginning of an extended portrait of Antoine and his new life in Paris. This movie is fundamentally humanistic and it doesn't hurry because we need to get to know Antoine and the team he works with, feel the boredom and routine that are big parts of any cop's life, acquaint ourselves with the details of their personalities.Somehow I don't think a rookie in an American cop movie would tell his dad that the extraction of a brain in his first witnessed autopsy made him think of Mozart and say "It's strange, I thought: 'Mozart was made of this too.'" There's no "need" for that moment; but it makes all the difference. It's of such moments that good movies are made.Antoine's on night duty at first and when his team goes out he's made to stay behind to man phones. He gets drunk to celebrate his initiation, which is good for camaraderie (and for the rounding out of Antoine's character) but hard for Inspector Vaudrieu, who must stand by drinking nothing but soda water. As the film, knowing about alcoholism, makes us aware, the alcoholic is only one drink away from relapse, and such times are hard for Caroline. She has to leave the bar and go home early. Later naively the rookie admits to her he used to smoke the occasional joint and surprisingly, she shares one with him. There are inevitable hints from the outside that they might have an affair, but given the feelings, that would be incest. What's clear is that though not much time has passed, they've become close.The first homicide is a homeless person in the Seine – petty stuff. But there are connections with another crime and the investigation turns serious. Eventually a failure of responsibility of one of the men leads to dire consequences. When the action really heats up, it's a shock that hits you in the stomach. The "dull, routine" establishing sequences have lulled you and made you forget that violence might be coming. They've also made you understand and care about the characters in an authentic-feeling way so that when somebody is at risk, you take it quite personally and the whole final section of the movie as its focus shifts more and more to Inspector Vaudrieu is tinged with overwhelming sadness.Nothing that happens in Le Petit lieutenant is out of the ordinary. What's exceptional is the way the screenplay is written to make you care. There's excitement, tension, violence. But it's brilliantly yet understatedly contextualized. The awareness communicated is that cops' frequently numbing work can also be thrilling, important – and heartbreaking. Hollywood sends that message out too, but too often in tired language. Because Beauvois' team clearly cared about their work they've been able to show us cops that do so too.(NYC March 2006.)

rkrcmar I saw the movie being a French police officer. Usually I don't like movies about French police for they are mostly very unrealistic.There however we have a story about what could be a regular case in one of the most important Crime Units in the city of Paris. With regular police work done by regular police detectives. The actors are playing in a such realistic manner that they just could be real cops caught in their everyday work.The movie is sad, very sad and hard. I don't think you would apply to become a police officer after seeing it ...