Accomplices (2009) User Reviews

Rebecca

[dbdumonteil · 7/10 · 6 February 2011]

"Complices" is a rather depressing work ,depicting a world which is exploiting the young ones ,treating them as sexual objects :it's revealing that two "clients" are a (female) lawyer and an ophthalmologist.The two miserable heroes come from difficult backgrounds:we never see Vincent's parents and the boy lives in a trailer with his pimp ,a jealous gay who cannot stand his girlfriend Rebecca.As for the girl ,she is left to her own devices ,her mother being almost always absent and she's hardly eighteen (we learn she is to take her HS diploma this year).The boy prostitutes himself and he leads Rebecca into bad ways ( the bisexual clientèle).Not exactly the romantic story of your dreams.Although the director does not spare the sordid details ,partly thanks to his actors (particularly Descours ,who remains natural and whose youthful look reveals a shattered innocence -the actor was 26 ,whereas he is supposed to be 19 in the movie) he makes his principals endearing.

The movie is a long flashback but,and it is the director's main quality,we never have the feeling of watching flashbacks .It's so rare in the movies it has to be underlined : present and past are so tightly linked that we have the strange feeling that Rebecca and her dead lover are still living their love story while the two cops are investigating.

This is not the rosy world of Eric Rohmer.It's a cruel world ,the world of those "dirty" sites on the net ,of the double life of the prostitutes and their clients .The boy ,eating candies after making love with a (probably) well-respected man ,shows the child still inside of him.As for Rebecca ,who is not a very attractive girl,she's naively looking for someone to love .Par excellence doomed lovers.However, the ending is finally ,in its own particular way,some kind of happy end ,and ,it's another quality of the movie,the cops are not caricatured and show some compassion.

Murder investigation probing Human Mysteries

[tigerfish50 · 8/10 · 8 February 2011]

The opening sequence of "Complices", with a body floating down a river, will resonate with those who remember "Twin Peaks". In this instance, the waterlogged corpse is that of a rootless young man, Vincent, rather than beautiful homecoming queen Laura Palmer - and the subsequent murder inquiry unveils the hidden decadence of the French city of Lyons, rather than that of a small town in the Pacific Northwest. Herve and Karine are the two detectives assigned to the case, and their initial fact-finding in Lyons reveals an additional echo from David Lynch's landmark TV series - Vincent, like Laura, had been prostituting himself. As Herve and Karine probe into Vincent's complicated life - as well as their own - the film cuts back and forth between the murder investigation and the young hustler's activities in the days prior to his death. They discover he was bi-sexual, and involved with high-school student Rebecca, who has disappeared. The detectives soon learn demure, middle-class Rebecca had participated in Vincent's commercial engagements, leaving them uncertain whether the missing girl may be the unknown killer, or another victim.

Writer/director Mermoud creates believable and sympathetic personalities, and his actors' fine performances ensure the characters remain interesting until the story's two time-lines are integrated in an unexpected and poignant conclusion. "Complices" is an exceptional film with an intriguing narrative arc unfolding in an original manner.

Reckless Romance

[wes-connors · 7/10 · 14 May 2011]

We begin with sexy Cyril Descours (as Vincent Bouvier) being fished out of a French river. An apparent murder victim, Mr. Descours was strangled and beaten. The nineteen-year-old is discovered to have been a prostitute, by lonely investigating officers Gilbert Melki (as Hervé Cagan) and Emmanuelle Devos (as Karine Mangin). As the middle-aged couple try to solve his murder, we see the drama unfold in flashbacks.. .

We meet Descours in a cybercafé, likely arranging to meet a new trick on his Internet sex site. When a recent picture is requested, Descours asks a nearby moon-faced high school student Nina Meurisse (as Rebecca Legendre) to snap the shot. Smitten with Descours, Ms. Meurisse leaves her number with the handsome young hustler, and receives his call. Soon, they are a genuine couple. At first, Descours tells his young girlfriend he is a real estate businessman... well, at least he didn't claim to be the Duke of Cumberland...

Descours is actually a prostitute catering to older men. Moreover, his only other long-term sexual relationship has apparently been with handsome young pimp Jeremy Kapone (as Thomas Moraizini). When Meurisse learns the truth, relationships change… Also known as "Accomplices" on the "Sundance" circuit, this is quite an engrossing, modern drama. This is mainly due to the fine direction given by Frédéric Mermoud, who cross-cuts well with editor Sarah Anderson and the crew. The performances elicited are very impressive. On the downside, there isn't much new ground being broken. "Complices" succeeds in the way it treads familiar territory with an illusion of originality.

Helping is the less flashy subplot involving Mr. Melki and Ms. Devos; they balance the younger couple by never actually getting off in the same way, and are thus made interesting on their own. There is also a good amount of nudity; some of the simulated sex is odd, but you can figure out what is supposed to be happening. It is interesting, and arguably regrettable, that the two "killers" who emerge during the story are treated very differently. Watch it. Think about it.

******* Complices (8/9/09) Frederic Mermoud ~ Cyril Descours, Nina Meurisse, Gilbert Melki, Emmanuelle Devos

Sex in movies

[stemal-1 · 7/10 · 22 August 2014]

I suppose I'm hypocritical in that I would happily watch a porn film, but unnecessary sex scenes and nudity in more mainstream movies annoy me.

The 'it was central to the plot' argument hardly ever holds up. But here it does. By recent standards, where it seems almost anything can be shown, the sex scenes in Complices are by no means explicit, but nonetheless the situations are still quite shocking.

Without those scenes though, there's no film. We needed to see what went on between Vincent, Rebecca and the others, unpleasant as it may have seemed to us.

My only gripe is that Rebecca's willingness to turn to the dark side seemed a bit sudden, although I understand her motivation.

A sad but gripping love story, wonderfully acted and cleverly told.

Pretty OK movie with very good performances from two young actors

[lazarillo · 10 February 2016]

This movie has an interesting narrative structure with a co-ed pair of middle-aged detectives (Emanuelle Devos, Gilbert Melki) investigating the murder of young male. This is skillfully cut together with the parallel flashback narrative of the young victim (Cyril Descoeurs) and his relationship with a fresh-faced teenage girl (Nina Meurisse). Their relationship starts out sweet and innocent, but he is a bisexual hustler, who in turn gets her involved in paid sexual encounters with various "respectable" but sleazy middle-age men in various generic-looking hotel rooms. The narrative structure is quite effective, even if the present-day narrative with mismatched male and female cops--who are both very attractive, yet strangely both single, and who have a sexual tension between them you could cut with a knife--is an extremely tiresome cliché from pretty much every police procedural movie and TV show you see these days. The OTHER narrative with the young couple works much better.

Cyril Descoeurs' character in a lesser movie would undoubtedly be portrayed as an evil "suitcase pimp"-type, leading an innocent girl astray. It always strikes me as very dishonest and unrealistic to portray a female this age as a wide-eyed innocent while a boy about the same age is portrayed as mustache-twirling villain. The boy here engages in paid sex along with the girl and he obviously genuinely cares about her (at one point he violently beats a sleazy middle-age client who abuses her). It also helps that we know from the beginning that HE at least is ultimately going to wind up a victim.

Nina Meurisse is a real revelation. She has an appealing girl-next-door wholesome look to her and is very talented, yet is clearly not afraid to take on a role that involves sex and nudity in every other scene. This movie kind of reminded me of the recent Francois Ozon misfire "Young and Beautiful". But the "teenage" girl in that looked suspiciously like a gorgeous fashion model (which the actress actually was) and her character simply did not have any particularly good reason to be engaging in prostitution. This is much, much more believable, and its largely thanks to the performance of Meurisse.

I don't want to oversell this movie, which is not exactly startling original, and is really only serviceable at an artistic filmmaking level. But I did enjoy it, largely because of the two young actors.

Interesting

[grantss · 7/10 · 27 July 2020]

Interesting movie. Starts off looking like a whodunnit crime-drama, but pretty soon it is obvious that it is much more than that. Turns out to be a gritty human drama, with romance and murder thrown in.

Good plot. Decent direction, though there are a few periods where it drifts a bit. Good performances, especially from the young leads - Cyril Descours and Nina Meurisse.

Riveting performances by the entire cast

[irishbaroo · 10/10 · 6 February 2011]

This movie was dark, and not like other high paced detective movies. It steered toward some familiar scenarios done elsewhere, but turned away from them at just the right time. The plot is complex, but not over bearing. The script was excellent in that the story flowed perfectly, every event discovered at the right time, the dialog between characters engaging at all times. The entire cast did an excellent job! I loved the relationship between the two Detectives, their lives were intertwined, but very separate. The boy and girl were perfect. She is like many of our Daughters, innocent outwardly but yet? The ending is absolutely perfect considering the story of the two Detectives. I'm very sorry I just saw this a few years later.This is a very well made movie! I will definitely be looking up the actors and actresses to find more of their work. Thanks to the Cast and Crew-Definitely a 10 out of 10!

Partners

[jotix100 · 8/10 · 16 January 2012]

The body of a young man is found floating on a river near Lyon. Herve and Karine, a team of the local police detectives, arrive at the scene. It is not clear to them as to what caused his death. They immediately begin their investigation. At the same time, another narrative, involving Vincent, the victim of the crime, is shown paralleling it to the work the police are trying to conduct.

Vincent, it turns out, is a male hustler. He meets his male costumers through a porn site on the web. His encounters are not cheap, two hundred Euros a session. His clients tend to be men of a certain age, wanting to engage the good looking Vincent and make him the center of their fantasies. Vincent operates out of hotel rooms, mainly. He goes to 'cybercafes' to chat with prospective 'johns'. One day he meets Rebecca, a girl that appears to be out of his league. In a bold move, she gives him her phone. This encounter will have a profound effect on their relationship and in the crime at the heart of the story.

In contrast with the bond that Vincent and Rebecca form, there is the one involving the detective team of Herve and Karine. Even though there is no hint there is anything but a good working relationship between them, both are seen sharing moments playing table tennis, or even using the communal showers of their police precinct, or just plain relaxing with a meal.

Vincent and Rebecca begin a torrid love affair at his trailer park-like mobile home. Vincent has lied to her about his profession, but it does not take long for her to find out what he really does as Karine follows Vincent to one of the hotels where he has just had a sexual encounter with a man. It will not take too long for Vincent to convince Karine to participate with him in other sexual acts that will end in tragedy.

Director Frederic Mermoud cleverly interlaces the actual investigation of the murder being investigated with the actual depiction of what really happened and how it led to the horrible crime in the story. In fact, Mr. Mermoud, who co-wrote the screenplay with Pascal Arnold, has a surprise for the audience that might not be too realistic in the viewer's eyes in the way he handles Rebecca's involvement in Vincent's death.

What the director achieved was first rate all around acting in a film that involves the viewer from the start. Gilbert Malki appears as Herve, the detective in the story. He was equally matched by Emmanuelle Devos who gives an understated performance as Karine. Cyris Descours is also terrific as Vincent, and Nina Meurisse makes the best out of her Rebecca the young woman that gets involved with a man out of her league to terrible consequences.

Beautifully photographed by Thomas Hardmeier, and with a music score by Gregorie Hetzel, the film showcases a brand new talent, Frederic Mermoud, whose next film will be eagerly awaited.

A good french drama, once more.

[searchanddestroy-1 · 24 January 2010]

One more effective french crime drama. Very well characterized by Emmanuelle Devos and Gilbert Melki, it tells the story of an investigation after a coprse is found in the Seine river. The two leads, cops, slowly find some elements on the dead man's life. The editing of this movie let us discover who the dead was. Some flash backs are mixed up with the story in the present, where the two cops investigate.

This is the story of relation ship between two individuals, the two cops, and also between the victim and his gril friend, how the young girl changes her mood with him, about his unavowable activies. The young man is a prostitute with wealthy business men or doctors...

This is also a story which shows us how humans can be depraved.

An ugly tale, but the ending saves us some hope.

Engaging French Thriller

[armagecko · 8/10 · 23 March 2024]

An advantage that American audiences have when viewing Euro films is that you regularly come across brilliant performances from actors you've never heard of. This rarely happens in Hollywood products because almost every popular American actor began as a child star. (DiCaprio, Gosling, dare I add Bale) Even the semi-talented kids get discovered & groomed early by Nickelodeon, pop music producers or the gazillion teen sitcoms, so by the time they appear on movie screens in a substantial role, you've seen their familiar faces countless times.

In Complices, we know from the start we'll see solid performances from veterans Melki & Devos, but who knew Descours & Meurisse would carry the film? And such excellent casting doesn't stop there. Even the smaller roles from Preiss, Ponsot & Kapone are on point.

I'm so tired of hearing other reviewers compare any film with a dead body to Twin Peaks. Films began with dead bodies long before David Lynch was even born. And the body that begins Complices makes Laura Palmer look as believable as Howdy Doody. Hats off to Hipaux & the effects crew for giving us a good corpse.

Mermoud & Arnold tell a simple but engaging story full of subtlety & subtext, only hinting at the character currents underneath. Watch Complices for the exquisite performances, but also to catch a glimpse of how tiny the French make their washing machines.