Pas une critique!

Vu sur Chérie 25.

Like watching a TV flick adaptation of a comicbook of the ELF case, relying on the fact we already know the story (given the extensive contemporary media coverage).
Every powerful man comes straight out of your childhood books, look, speech or attitude wise, giving ways to terrible scenes of comploting. Even Balmer, a usually competent side actor, is ridiculous. And it's not Patrick Bruel, with only a few peaks in his acting career, who goes against the overall impression.

What is left is the appropriately rigid Huppert-isation of Eva Joly and a mediocre Thomas Chabrol.

You know it's by Chabrol because of who it targets (and because the "family" is everywhere, even when it's detrimental to the result), but you wouldn't know otherwise, as it's lacking directing or narrative qualities and even his signature suspense treatment of this "true story" is nowhere to be felt (I can't even tell what genre it is). A bit of his old snide surfaces here and there, only to make it even more apparent how minor this movie is.
Some pleasant scenes showcasing characters interactions, foreign to the intrigue, survive (like the morning café with the bodyguards after her departure from the "marital" home). And french speaking audiences will smile at the puns several names are (starting with the heroine's).

(Also, the Chabrol son's music is more annoying than usual, often failing to dissolve in the background.)

Score: 4?5/10
Enjoyment: 3/5