The theft of a best-selling author's unpublished manuscript sets off this French thriller, which teases out questions of art, commerce, ethics and integrity.
Second-time writer-director Regis Roinsard is clearly taking cues from Agatha Christie novels about "perfect" crimes with suspects in exotic locations.
The stolen book is the final of a trilogy, and when its first few pages leak online with a ransom demand, Eric's demeanour as gallant host dissolves quickly. With his impeccably tailored suits and chiselled Aryan features he begins to remind you of a movie Nazi: holding the translators captive while sending the guards to ransack their bedrooms and ordering a strip search, like some sadistic commandant.
In this regard, the trilogy's mysterious and publicity-shy novelist — a kind of French, male version of Elena Ferrante — is one of Roinsard's more interesting ideas. It leads us to a white-haired bookseller in Normandy , who looks upon the world from his tiny shop with jaded suspicion .The translators, of course, do not know him, and they have different ideas of what he represents.
For the Russian , who dons a flowing white dress like the one Rebecca wears in the book, the heroine is almost a personal avatar . There is a lot of character to develop here, and the film struggles to put flesh on all the bones, especially as it contends with numerous surprise revelations.
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