The Crimson River

Slick but uneven psychological thriller in which Jean Reno's legendary cop, Commissioner Niemans, is called to a remote Alpine town to investigate a grisly murder. Meanwhile, in a provincial village some 150 miles away, maverick officer Max Kerkerian (Cassel) is looking into the apparently random acts of vandalism in a graveyard and a school. Thanks to his investigations, Kerkerian is slowly drawn towards the same case that Niemens is working. Early on, The Crimson Rivers has all the hallmarks of a great thriller. Mathieu Kassovitz's (La Haine) style of direction is visually impressive but never too overbearing, his characters are reasonably well formed and a genuinely intriguing premise has been laid out. After an hour of this, however, he lays waste to all of his good work, as The Crimson Rivers becomes an inflated Hollywood style thriller. Cassel and Reno - both excellent actors - get lost in the muddled screenplay and there's little anyone can do to save this misguided effort.