The Villain

2009
6.3| 1h26m| en
Details

With gun-toting rivals on his tail, a daring bank robber takes refuge in the quiet residential street here he grew up and where his mother, Maniette, still lives. An unscrupulous property developer, Korazy, is buying up the neighborhood to turn it into a gleaming new banking district, but to her son's disgust Maniette leads the inhabitants resistance. Her ingenious methods provoke her boy's admiration, but he fights back with sneaky traps and underhand tricks when Maniette tries to force him to do the right thing just once in his life.

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Reviews

MusicChat It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.
TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.
Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
writers_reign This film brings together two of the most versatile actors in French cinema and whilst Catherine Frot has often displayed her gift for comedy this is the first time I have been exposed to Albert Dupontel's lighter side which isn't of course to say he has never appeared in comedy just that I haven't seen him. He wrote and directed this black comedy himself in which he plays a really bad seed who has been in trouble since his childhood. Having left home twenty years ago and not bothered to keep in touch with his mother, Catherine Frot, he only returns now because he is on the lam from fellow criminals he has managed to upset. He is reunited with a mother who has troubles of her own, holding out against unscrupulous property developers who are buying up the residential neighborhood for commercial development. After a series of inventive-to-brilliant sight gags and sharp dialogue involving both mother and son getting shot it ends on an upbeat not. It's not going to trouble the Cesar judges but it is highly enjoyable.