Empire
of the Wolves (2006)
Sony
Cast:
Jean Reno, Arly Jover.
Rating:
NR
Run
time: 128 mins.
Genre:
Foreign
Verdict:
Beautiful
(see rating
system)
This
smart movie shows the French know how to make an action packed
thriller as good as anything coming out of Hollywood.
It's
a great plus, of course, to have the great Jean Reno (Mission
Impossible, The Da Vinci Code, Ronin) on board. Here's an
actor who can dominate a scene and hold his own with the likes
of Robert De Niro or Tom Hanks.
Based
on the novel by Jean-Christophe Grange, The Empire of the
Wolves tells two intersecting stories. In the first, Anna
(Arly Jover), wife of a government agent, is suffering hallucinations
and fears she is losing her mind.Sometimes she doesn't even
recognize her own husband and stars to believe he had plastic
surgery to change his appearance. The truth is even more horiffic.
Meanwhile,
Paris police hunt a suspected serial killer after three illegal
Turkish immigrant women are brutally mutilated and murdered.
At their wits end, police reluctantly call on Schiffer
(Reno), a disgraced retired cop who has an intimate knowledge
of the Turkish underground in Paris. Completely ruthless when
pursuing information to solve the case, Schiffer shocks a
colleague when he tortures a gang boss.
Working the seedy neighbourhoods and backstreets of Paris,
Schiffer soon encounters Anna on a quest of her own. Both
paths lead to a Turkish terror group called the Gray Wolves.
Nothing
is at it seems in this fast paced flick. There's a decent
English-language dub of the
original French dialogue, though you might want to go with
subtitles to catch Reno's distinctive voice.
