BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Micransix Crappy film

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Claudio Carvalho In Paris, the photographer Melissa (Maïwenn) is assigned by the Ministry of the Interior to document the daily activities of the BPM – the Police Division for Child Protection under the command of Chief Baloo (Frederic Pierrot).Along the days, Melissa witnesses and takes photos of pedophiles, children and women abusers and abused and befriends the team of detectives, sharing their investigations along the working days and leaning how their jobs affect their private lives. Soon she has a love affair with the sensitive and emotive Detective Fred (Joeystarr)."Polisse" is an entertaining French docudrama about a team of police officers responsible to protect children from abuses. The screenplay uses ellipsis and it seems that is based on true stories. It is good to see how the team works and their relationship outside the work, showing that the officers are human beings with families and problems affected by their work. The weakest part is the character Melissa, with her touristic and unprofessional camera, and taking her glasses off and loosening her hair in a silly behavior. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Polissia" ("Polisse")

ihrtfilms It started quite well, but after a while, I found it incomprehensible the way the team handle the cases. They were so extremely aggressive and often quite vile: asking the woman about her sex life in a such a rude manner, as she was the culprit or the girl who lost her phone, laughing in her face. Or the way the harass the girl who's just had a stillbirth. Really? This is how police deal with sensitive cases? I don't think so. And multiple agents interviewing people seemed unreal as well. Dealing with some of the crimes would no doubt be hard to deal with and difficult to keep emotions in check, but there is no professional conduct, no calm, collective approach or even respect and that seems outrageous. Shocking film.

turners-1 This film is the biggest heap of rubbish I have seen in years - nothing but a vanity project for the director. If people are left thinking that this is how a CPU would behave in any western European country then the director should hang her head in shame. Firstly the plot is a mess -events happen without any seeming rhyme of reason, all in the midst of a lot of shouting and flouncing by the CPU staff, none of which is in the least bit believable (at the start of the film a banner flashes up that 'these cases are based on real cases'). The overacting is appalling. The scene in the shopping mall is a joke, people standing round talking into walkie-talkies when they are supposed to be keeping a low profile in order to arrest a group of jewel smugglers. Secondly it is impossible to care about any of the characters, or what happens to them, with the possible exception of Ballou. All the while we get loving shots of the director (a very comely wench it must be admitted) looking gorgeous and simpering.I watched the film with a social worker who couldn't stop laughing at how ludicrous the whole film was, and I could not but help agree. As for the ending.....There is a major film to be made about the work of CPUs, but this definitely isn't it.

MacCarmel I had been looking forward to seeing this film and knew that it had gotten good reviews by critics who I respect. But after seeing it, I am not on the same page. My review may stand out on IMDb as in "which one of these is not like the other". I did not find it funny, nor thrilling, nor a triumph of acting. It's true that this is a star-studded cast, however, there is also a lot of overacting going on. What I saw made me wonder why such frat house behavior among so-called professionals drew IMDb user raves and 13 Cesar award nominations and a Best Film win at Cannes.And then I tracked down Mick LaSalle's San Francisco Chronicle review and he gave me the perspective needed to understand this film. It is this: Maiwenn Le Besco was the model used for Natalie Portman's film debut (at age 12) in The Professional. Maiwenn came to the attention of that film's director, Luc Besson, at age 15 and had his child at age 16. It all makes sense when viewed through that lens.The officers of the children's protective services unit often seem to not like children at all, let alone view their job as one of protection. They are unbelievably rude to children and adults alike, physically violent to the people they bring in for questioning, openly mocking & humiliating of adolescents who've been coerced into sexual acts, have a perpetual chip on their shoulder as to their wider standing within the police force, overreact to most everything, and seem to spend an inordinate amount of time having meals and drinks and evenings out with each other as a group. Many of the user reviews chalk this up to some sort of battle fatigue in a group who takes their job so, so seriously. It seems to me, however, that this is a group of people with open disdain for much of the rest of the population, and each other, and they seem to have the opposite reaction to specific cases as one would expect from a professional investigative officer: hysterically leaping en masse into a citywide search for a woman who has taken a child, perhaps her own, vs. lovingly telling the boy whose coach molested him that the man might one day return to coaching because prison time will have taught him that what he did was wrong. This only makes sense from the perspective of someone who has personal experience with her voice being diminished by those who should have protected her.I notice also that some reviews comment on the ending making no sense and being really rather terrible. It is hard to know which piece of the ending they are speaking about but let me just say that, to me, that last bit with Iris was the most real part of the entire film. I totally understand every aspect of that. Especially with Mick's insight.