Butler's Cinema Scene

Gilles Lellouche

“POINT BLANK” My rating: B- (Opens Sept. 30 at the Tivoli)

84 minutes | No MPAA rating

The French actioner “Point Blank” (no relation to the old Lee Marvin flick) is a good example of hit-the-ground-running moviemaking.

It begins with a breathless chase through Paris and rarely eases the pressure over 84 minutes.

Our hero is Samuel (Gilles Lellouche), a nurse’s aide expecting his first child with his wife Nadia (Elena Anaya).

But all that domestic bliss is put at risk when an unconscious and unidentified patient is assigned to Samuel’s ward.

Samuel foils an attempt on the man’s life, and before you can say “Hitchcock” his beloved Nadia has been kidnapped. A threatening voice on the telephone tells Samuel that if he ever wants to see his unborn child he’d better spirit his patient out of the hospital and into the hands of…well, who knows who?

Roschdy Zem

The patient, now awake, turns out to be Sartet (Roschdy Zem), a career criminal who has run afoul of a corrupt cabal of police officers. Now the unlikely team of healer and professional crook must find a way to clear their names, turn the tables on the bad cops, rescue Nadia and, hopefully, get her to the hospital on time.

There’s nothing particularly deep going on here. But under Fred Cavayé’s direction, but the yarn spins out so quickly and effortlessly that you don’t have time to indulge any “yes, but…” moments.

Just sit back, hold on and enjoy.

| Robert W. Butler