Directed by:
Fred CavayéCinematography:
Danny ElsenComposer:
Cliff MartinezCast:
Vincent Lindon, Gilles Lellouche, Nadine Labaki, Gilles Cohen, Max Baissette de Malglaive, Velibor Topic, Medi Sadoun, Cyril Lecomte, Gilles Bellomi (more)VOD (1)
Plots(1)
Policemen Simon and Franck are celebrating the end of an assignment, when they cause a fatal car crash. Whilst Franck is uninjured, Simon, who was drink-driving, is seriously wounded and loses his job. Six years later and now divorced, Simon struggles to be a father to his son Theo. Out of loyalty to his old friend, Franck watches over the boy from afar. After Theo witnesses a Mafia killing, Simon and Franck must reunite to do whatever it takes to protect Theo from his pursuers. (101 Films)
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Reviews (3)
The weakest of Cavay’s chase thrillers and so they could marketed as "Mea Culpa, I have sinned". However, in this case, the weakest doesn’t mean weak at all. It’s just undecided, as if the author didn’t know whether to go for the more intimate style that he introduced in Anything for Her or the murderous, berserk style of Point Blank. And so it first tries to concentrate on the characters and their moods, which works if you turn a blind eye or two, but you get to understand the balance of power “this one is like this and that one is like that" in the first ten minutes. Plus, it isn’t clear for the first half what is going to happen (if you haven’t read the synopsis) and what is at stake becomes clear only immediately before the turning point when Lindon is at last able to add to his repertoire of stubborn silence and leather jacket with a look saying “you touched my son, I’m gonna touch your life". And from that moment on it flips over into nonstop action. And you don’t find many others as good at ingenious, real to life within the limits of the genre, uncompromising, different, wisecrack and CGI free, non-shaky and non-confusing action scenes as Cavayé. You get a taste of this from the opening gourmet three in a car fight, but it certainly doesn’t all end there; you just have to wait a while for seconds. And of course it applies that the characters behave a the genre dictates; like dumb asses, but that is all part of it, take it or leave it.
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I was surprised how the French in this film managed to turn a completely insignificant story into an incredibly solid action flick. Actually, it’s not entirely about the action as such... although that’s important too. What is more important is the story in between, about the relationship of the two cops who make a great team. Vincent Lindon and Gilles Lellouche immediately became actors to whom I will pay close attention when they reappear somewhere. But as a whole, I first wanted to rate this with solid five stars, but then I realized I was too hyped up by the ending. So I knocked one star off to be more objective, because it’s actually quite a small-scale affair. The action scenes are subtle yet intense. The story is quite simple, but the movie has a lot of charm. Mea Culpa is a movie I won’t forget that easily.
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Probably the weakest Fred Cavayé, but still it is a pretty decent adrenaline-packed and suspenseful film. Unfortunately for me, it does not offer anything new, there was no scene that would stick in my memory, the plot is also quite sterile, so a better average, ideal kill boredom, the fun is guaranteed :) 60%
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