The Super Network

Point Blank is an intense thriller, that is exciting and extremely well put together. The film follows a familiar formula, but it has a fresh spin on it, I am sure there will be comparisons to things like Taken or even something like Nick Of Time. It is a film with the high stakes and not much time on the clock to get things done.

Our story begins with a man (who doesn’t look like he was up to anything good) getting hit by a car and ends up in hospital. This is where we meet Samuel (Gilles Lellouche), who is happily married to Nadia (Elena Anaya) and they are expecting their first child. Samuel is on his way to becoming a nurse and works as an orderly at the hospital. This is where he encounters the man from the beginning Sartet (Roschdy Zem), and saves his life from someone trying to finish the job. After this happens, Samuel’s wife is kidnapped and he is told he must help get Sartet out of hospital and the race is on.

The film is complex, because it isn’t just cut and paste, there is more going on throughout the film, and it slowly gets revealed as it goes on. It doesn’t show its hands right away, but instead we’re in Samuel’s shoes and we find out things as he does. There are things to be said here on police corruption, and you’ll understand that as you watch it. I’d rather not reveal too much in fear of heading into spoiler territory. This film is really best seen without knowing too much because it is so much fun and so intense to see it unravel and to put the pieces together along with Samuel.

The acting in this film was decent, it was kind of a film that went really fast and there was action quite a lot so performances weren’t something I was paying attention too. I really liked Gilles Lellouche and Roschdy Zem, they both worked well together and independently. They were both cast well and made for good almost dual leads. I also thought Elena Anaya was good for her smaller role, she did what she had to and tried to make the most of it. Gérard Lanvin was quite intimidating and that worked as well. I don’t think anyone really gave a bad performance here at all.

I really liked the pacing of the film, its structure and how well it was put together. It has a beginning, middle and an end and all are wholly satisfying. The action sequences are well shot and very exciting, there wasn’t an attempt to over stylise it, which I really liked. The film was directed by Fred Cavayé who also co-wrote it with Guillaume Lemans. There was a great understanding for the genre and how to film it, I was impressed with this one and I’d definitely recommend it.

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