Summary
Whilst on an assignment, professional hitman Victor Meynard runs into a delivery boy,
Antoine. Unable to kill the adolescent, Meynard adopts him as his accomplice, in
spite of Antoine’s evident lack of enthusiasm for his new career. They are hired
by a Corsican gangster to kill a con artist Renée Dandrieux for palming off a fake
painting. Again, Meynard’s luck is against him, and when he fails to kill Renée,
with Antoine's help, the Corsican gangster sends another hitman to kill all three of them...
Review
The crime thriller has been a popular target for parody in France ever since the heyday
of the genre in the 1950s. Whilst Cible émouvante is an entertaining
film with many plus points, it adds little in the way of originality or style to what
has gone before it. The plot is infuriatingly predictable, the writer appearing
to take the obvious course at ever turn, and the film ends up appearing to parody itself.
Fortunately, the film is mercifully short and ends way before it could have become tedious.
The film's main strength lies in the wonderful interactions between the three lead actors.
Jean Rochefort, better known for straight roles as the archetypal hard man of the French
film noir (or ‘polar’) genre, shows an endearing flair for comedy and contributes most
to the film’s great comic moments. Marie Trintignant is Rochefort’s unlikely co-star,
less convincing but giving an amusingly feisty performance. Caught in the middle
is young Guillaume Depardieu (son of Gérard), often outrageously funny in his familiar
gawping way; female devotees of the actor will certainly not be disappointed.
© James Travers 1999
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