First things first. Do not believe English language trailers for French films. They lie. According to the trailer for "Le Serpent" you are led to believe that Vincent's (Yvan Attal) life is perfect. That Vincent has a dream home, a dream family and a dream existence. Then, into this idyllic fantasy lifestyle comes a man seeking to destroy it.... But why?
OK. So far, so predictable. Luckily the trailer was mostly utter nonsense and incredibly misleading. Vincent's life is not perfect. Vincent's life is a mess. He is in the middle of a bitter divorce. His soon-to-be-ex wife is trying to take his children to live with her in another country. She looks like she may win. Then, after a sinister turn of events, a man appears offering help and then... and so on and so forth.
I suppose that "Le Serpent" is a serviceable enough, if unoriginal, thriller, but I couldn't shake the niggling feeling that, despite some refreshing Gallic explicitness (Olga Kurylenko is extremely hot), it's true home would have been as one of those two part ITV thrillers they show on a Monday/Tuesday night, starring the likes of Neil Pearson, Robson Green and Jemma Redgrave. Not that there is a lot of obvious Englishness remaining in "Le Serpent", despite the fact that it was originally based on a novel "Plender" by "Get Carter" writer Ted Lewis, and was originally set in an English Northern town in the late 1960's. It's not a bad story. I would like to read that novel to see how faithful "Le Serpent" was to the plot.
"Le Serpent" is not bad for an afternoon diversion, but has nothing that will make it stand apart from a million other thrillers.
OK. So far, so predictable. Luckily the trailer was mostly utter nonsense and incredibly misleading. Vincent's life is not perfect. Vincent's life is a mess. He is in the middle of a bitter divorce. His soon-to-be-ex wife is trying to take his children to live with her in another country. She looks like she may win. Then, after a sinister turn of events, a man appears offering help and then... and so on and so forth.
I suppose that "Le Serpent" is a serviceable enough, if unoriginal, thriller, but I couldn't shake the niggling feeling that, despite some refreshing Gallic explicitness (Olga Kurylenko is extremely hot), it's true home would have been as one of those two part ITV thrillers they show on a Monday/Tuesday night, starring the likes of Neil Pearson, Robson Green and Jemma Redgrave. Not that there is a lot of obvious Englishness remaining in "Le Serpent", despite the fact that it was originally based on a novel "Plender" by "Get Carter" writer Ted Lewis, and was originally set in an English Northern town in the late 1960's. It's not a bad story. I would like to read that novel to see how faithful "Le Serpent" was to the plot.
"Le Serpent" is not bad for an afternoon diversion, but has nothing that will make it stand apart from a million other thrillers.