If you're someone who has also been itching to visit Marseille ever since a way-past-bedtime viewing of The French Connection II way back when, then The Connection will only have you promising yourself a trip even more. Whereas Gene Hackman's boorish copper Popeye Doyle battled heroin and the heat (both kinds) in the city in the 1975 film, here The Artist's Jean Dujardin plays Pierre Michel, a much smoother magistrate, but someone who proves to be just as determined as the US lawman to dismantle the Mediterranean drugs empire. His nemesis is Gaëtan 'Tany' Zampa (Lellouche), the closest thing to a lizard in a suit in recent cinema history.
While the title shows an awful lack of imagination (the domestic moniker is as bad - La French) there is still much to enjoy about The Connection. Dujardin and Lellouche are both excellent; the cinematography is superb and the mid-to-late Seventies are brilliantly recreated. Director Jimenez manages to do grubby and swagger with equal aplomb, while the grim realities of working on either side of the law are contrasted with normal family life. Neither of these men is as tough as they have convinced themselves they are during that split second in the bathroom mirror, but they're both hooked on the game.
When it comes to the depth of the supporting characters, The Connection is somewhat lacking, and keeping track of who's who is a bit of an ask. Oddly, for a film with a 135-minute running time, the ending is rushed, and it's in no way as satisfying as that quayside denouement of 40 years ago.
Good crime movies are few and far between from May to August, and despite its faults, The Connection is a satisfying watch - one which may even do enough to actually make you book that trip. And if you're looking for a book to take with you, try Dennis Lehane's Live by Night. It's every paragraph a page-turner and due on our screens in the next few years with Ben Affleck in the lead role. Lovers of the genre, start counting down now.
Harry Guerin
