Point Blank

If you're looking for a thriller that packs an adrenaline hit then Point Blank is for you. The latest from Anything For Her director Fred Cavayé makes a virtue of its fast pace, speeding along at such a rate that you barely have time to catch your breath let alone consider some of the more complicated convolutions of a key plot point that happens prior to the start of the action.

Gilles Lellouche (on the rise courtesy of recent releases Little White Lies and The Extraordinary Adventures Of Adèle Blanc-Sec) is nice guy nurses aid Samuel, happily married to the heavily pregnant Nadia (Elena Anaya). His life is so idyllic that it is only a matter of time before he finds himself a victim of circumstance.

And so, after unwittingly saving the life of criminal Hugo Sartet (Roschdy Zem), he is coerced into running on the wrong side of the law if he ever wants to see her and his unborn baby alive again. And running is the name of the game in all but a handful of scenes where Cavayé stops for a few seconds to lay the exposition on thick. That said, despite its fast pace, the director takes care to set up the characters and their relationships so that we are rooting for Samuel's unlucky everyman every step of the way.

The plot is broadened by an impressive dose of police corruption and the scene is set for lots of racing around Paris, much of it on foot, as Sartet and Samuel end up forging an uneasy alliance to expose the crooked cops.

While Sartet's back story is as pulpy as they come, it's the delivery that matters and in terms of action thrills, Cavayé never takes his foot off the throttle. He also slips in some excellent twists that should neatly wrong-foot even seasoned thriller watchers. The actors, too, bring their A game, with Lellouche, in particular, keeping the viewer onside even through the more outrageous plot manoeuvres. Expect a not-quite-as-good-as-the-original Hollywood remake soon... with Liam Neeson in the Lellouche role.