Monday, September 19, 2011

Point Blank

A man is chased out of a building in Paris by two armed assailants into a tunnel where he is struck by a motorbike. At the hospital, an attempt is made on the man's life but he is saved in the nick of time by a male nurse. Afterwards while celebrating his heroism with his pregnant wife, he is attacked while she is kidnapped. The kidnappers demand the man be taken out of the hospital or his wife will be killed and the nurse is thrown into a desperate situation with the patient where he things grow more complex by the minute and he must think fast if he wants to clear his name and get his wife back safely. "Point Blank" is an idiotic French thriller whose idea of creating tension is by cranking up the thumping soundtrack so that we think we are watching a pulse pounding film. They also like to thrown in ridiculous shock moments that no audience member with a functioning brain would find plausible, in order to perpetuate their rouse that we are watching an actual film. Gilles Lellouche lacks credibility entirely in his mawkish performance as the nurse, Gerard Lanvin is a caricature as the villain (I actually liked Roschdy Zem as the deadly patient), and the rest of the cast sounds ridiculous uttering tough talking dialogue. By using Hitchcock's wrong man scenario to pathetic avail, the filmmakers of "Point Blank" have succeeded only in providing by the guise of a thriller. Sadly, I think some people in my audience fell for it.