I've always enjoyed watching Vincent Cassel in the few French films of his I've seen (La Haine, Irreversible, Dobermann, etc), and this was no different. He really is a fine actor, if not a powerhouse actor of the likes of Spain's Javier Bardem, but he's certainly got enough skill and charisma to take over a movie, as he does here. The film's a tad slow at parts, but the premise is somewhat original: a deaf woman uses her abilities of reading lips to assist an ex-con in pulling off a heist. Emmanuelle Devos plays mentioned deaf woman, and does a damn fine job at it.
The way the film handles the realtionship between Devos and Cassel is what I would describe as delicately, and I would imagine, realistically, though I've never had the good fortune of knowing someone personally that is hearing impaired. The film builds slowly, and though it has the makings of a great heist film, the pay off and the events leading directly up to it are too convoluted to separate it from even just above run of the mill heist films like Soderbergh's Ocean's 11 (or 12, which featured Cassel as well). It's certainly worth a watch, especially if you like Cassel (because he really is good here), or just want a new way of looking at the heist film.
The way the film handles the realtionship between Devos and Cassel is what I would describe as delicately, and I would imagine, realistically, though I've never had the good fortune of knowing someone personally that is hearing impaired. The film builds slowly, and though it has the makings of a great heist film, the pay off and the events leading directly up to it are too convoluted to separate it from even just above run of the mill heist films like Soderbergh's Ocean's 11 (or 12, which featured Cassel as well). It's certainly worth a watch, especially if you like Cassel (because he really is good here), or just want a new way of looking at the heist film.
