blanche-2 I was very impressed with the acting in 2007's Counter Investigation," a French film directed by Franck Mancuso, who also co-wrote the script.Jean Dujardin gives a moving and strong performance as Richard Malinowski, a police detective whose young daughter is raped and murdered. A man, Daniel Eckmann (Laurent Lucas) is arrested but begins to write to Richard, claiming to be innocent. Upon investigation, Richard discovers that a serial killer of young children was in the vicinity at the time his child was killed.The story is good but I had it figured out right away, which sort of spoiled it for me. And my big problem was Malinowski leaving his daughter home alone. It's perhaps because I live in the U.S. and have seen too many true crime shows, but I was surprised when he did it.Laurent Lucas is handsome and underplayed his role as the imprisoned man. He does a wonderful job. He and Dujardin had the largest roles, but everyone was convincing. Agnes Blanchot, Jacques Frantz, Jean- François Garreaud, and Jean-Pierre Cassel rounded out a forceful cast.What was so right-on about the main characters is that one never knew what either one was thinking or was going to do next.Recommended.

R. Ignacio Litardo Jean Dujardin plays "Richard Malinowski", a model cop and family man in this film loaded with famous actors like J. P. Cassel, Aurélien Recoing and J. F. Garreaud. Beautiful Caroline Santini plays the unknowing victim of a psychopath so well you can't forget her case easily. Visually beautiful, great music, a rather classic/ conventional plot in the beginning, but the movie doesn't deliver if you know how to wait.Claire M., the long-suffering wife of our main character, could've been better developed, following instead the well trodden lines of the "wife that doesn't understand the hero, leaves him at the worst moment, is cold and always complaining". I'd expect a better leading female character, at least in a film made in 2007.What I most liked is the cop culture of fellowship, even when they know what their "brothers in arms" are up to. They protect each other. For good or for bad :).Enjoy!PS: To the fellow IMDb reviewer "kosmasp": Yes, Dujardin is very well known in France, he's always at Cannes, having just won the best actor prize there with the beautiful film "L'Artiste" with Bérénice Bejo, for instance.

kosmasp ... by a few things. Like how good the movie was, how bad it is rated here and how convincing the main actor was in this (given the movie I saw him before was a spoof, OSS 117). Although I heard he's a big star over in France.No wonder I say. His performance holds this movie together, which may be a little predictable and might run a bit too long, but it still is a good movie. With a very difficult topic that is. And a relationship between two characters, that is disturbing to say the least. And that's not only counting for the wife of the main character (it's his movie though, which is apparent too), but also with the other main person of the movie. It moves slowly, but if you adapt to that, than you will like it (and the twists will be a nice addition, too).

writers_reign One thing you can be sure of with Frank Mancuso is authenticity. An ex-cop himself, he co-wrote 36 Quai des Orfevres with another ex-cop, Olivier Marchal (who also directed) and based it on incidents in his own time on the force. This time around he has adapted an American novel by Robert Bloch but his movie is no worse for that. It's arguably more psychological thriller than pure policier but manages to retain its grip throughout. In a nutshell a cop's young daughter is killed and a suspect arrested, tried and imprisoned and this, as they say, is where the story really starts; with the prisoner - Monty Clift lookalike Laurent Lucas - initiating a correspondence from his cell with the father of the murdered girl, a correspondence he chooses to keep secret from his wife. Justice, albeit rough justice, prevails in the end but as always in life nobody really wins. Definitely worth seeing.