ikanboy Daniel Auteuil steps out from his native French and is immediately swimming against the tide in this film noire set inexplicably in England but with mostly foreign actors. I like Auteuil, when he's doing French movies but here his accent and rather high voice just sets the mood off. I guessed in the second half hour who the bad guy was, so it was just a question of when our hero would, but not before traveling to Mexico to watch Bruce Greenwood strangle a German accent in a performance I am sure he regrets. With French writers and a British Director what could go right? It's not a bad movie just a movie with the wrong actors in the wrong setting.

jotix100 Xavier Lombard, a Frenchman, has been living in London after his life was altered by the assassination of his wife and daughter in a horrible car explosion aimed to kill him, as well. He had gone mad, after the tragedy. He left France because he needed a change of pace. He is now a private detective. His old pal, Carlos De Moraes, a Brazilian former colleague, comes to him with a proposal. Xavier is asked by Carlos' wife Deborah Spitz, and her parents, to track down her brother who has mysteriously disappear from the face of the world.The investigation takes Xavier to the missing man's girlfriend, Emily, who meets him with suspicion, aiming a shotgun at him. She has reasons for the hostility, she is caring for Shiva, a boy rescued by the missing man because he was being used for unscrupulous sexual purposes, leaving the boy speechless. Shiva can only mutter a name: "The Austrian" as the man that got him into sexual slavery. Xavier decides to consult with his friend, Nathalie, a French prostitute, because her contacts in the British underworld.Nathalie puts Xavier in contact with what turned out to be a pedophile ring operating among London's elite. His investigation takes him deeply into the gang's territory, even going as far into Mexico to get to the root of how the children are taken away to be groomed for what they in turn will become. A lot of money is at stake. Xavier's finding will reveal who the real mastermind is, something that will stun him.Chris Menges, a distinguished cinematographer himself, directs the film. Written by Marie and Eric Leclere with Mark Mills, this is a thriller adventure that holds the viewer's suspense because it is credible. The insidious work of pedophiles amazes Xavier, having suffered the loss of a daughter himself. The production was photographed by Barry Ackroyd, the Oscar winning cinematographer for "The Hurt Locker". The music score is by Boran Bregovic.Daniel Auteuil, a wonderful French actor, shows courage accepting to appear as the star of this film. Even though his accent is a bit thick, he manages to portray the man at the center of the action. Not being associated with this type of genre, he does well in a film that takes him away from his usual roles in France. The late Katrin Cartlidge appears as Emily. Marianne Denicourt does an excellent Nathalie, and Natassja Kinski plays the grieving sister of the disappeared man. Ciaran Hinds makes the most of his Carlos De Moraes.

ricrisci In The Lost Son, a private eye searching for a missing man stumbles upon a child prostitution ring. This film incorporates all of the worst stereotypes you could imagine in a worst-case scenario that exists only in the minds of Hollywood, the press and AG John Asscrap. If you get a chance to see this, you'd be better off getting lost yourself.

Havan_IronOak A French private investigator with a shady past is engaged to find the missing son of a wealthy Jewish family. Our hero gets the job because his ex partner (he was a Police Officer in Paris before some bust went bad) is now married to the daughter in the family.The trail quickly leads to a white slavery ring dealing in children and thereafter it becomes pretty much standard private detective fare. If illegal drugs were substituted as a plot element instead of the exploited children this would be just another average movie, but as it was, I felt that the filmmakers were hoping some prurient interest in these children and their predicament would make this film somehow more interesting. I hope not as it would mean that the film-makers (as well as the `bad guys' in this film) are exploiting the children.