Andrew Shaw (deadmansshoes)

A haunting and affecting portrayal of schizophrenia and grief. Damian Lewis delivers a devestating performance with wonderful support from Amy Ryan and a tiny Abigail Breslin.

A beautifully played tale, unflinching, yet never unsympathetic in it's presentation of a disturbed and tortured soul.

Despite having two films to tell the story of Jacques Mesrine, France's very own John Dillinger, there is a great economy of storytelling at work here. Part 1 most certainly does not waste our time dwelling on details, if there is a part of his story that doesn't merit a great deal of screentime we will skim through it, getting all the info we need to understand the man and his story, and then moving on to the next scene.



Many biopics would see fit to drag their feet, dwelling on "humanizing" or reflective moments to give greater weight to their character at the expense of covering the bigger picture; Mesrine Part 1 manages to convey the humanity, the brutality and the complexity of the man without ever slowing down or feeling like a cliffnotes summary of his life; largely in thanks to Vincent Cassel's amazing performance.



I could, and rightly should praise director Jean-François Richet (whose only past credit I have seen is the surprisingly good Assault on Precinct 13 remake) who shows a masterful control of cinematic language in composing and executing his shots, whilst also rallying together all performers to be unifyingly great (with Gerard Depardieu being the obvious standout giving one of his best performances in years as a terrifyingly casual violent mob boss) but the real draw and the real reason Mesrine: L'Instinct de Mort is the modern masterpiece that it is, is down to Vincent Cassel.



An actor who is consistently at the top of his game in everything he does; from his blistering, starmaking turn in La Haine, through his devastatingly naturalistic performance in Irreversible, through his equally great English language performances in Eastern Promises and even the Ocean's Eleven sequels, Cassel has always been someone worth watching and one of the best actors working today but with Mesrine he gives the performance of his career. Every great actor has that one role they were born to play, George C Scott had Patton, Toshirô Mifune had Kikuchiyo (although I do find myself changing my mind on Mifune's best more often than most actors), DeNiro had Jake Lamotta, and now Vincent Cassel has Jacque Mesrine. Flawless, captivating work. He manages to weave together the contradictory nature of this enigmatic and divisive figure and make it feel like a real, whole person. It's impossible to take your eyes off him once he starts.



I can't wait to see Part 2 to see how much further he takes this role.