Counter Investigation (2007)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

A Disappointing Continuation

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

I love 10 movies. This be one of them. It's well made, directed, decent story and has all the range of emotions one would expect when being entertained. It wont take long for the viewer to be captured and then immersed into the storyline all the while not knowing what to expect. It has a sense of something is coming but what to it and finally, that "what" appears giving one of the best closures to the human psyche one could have. I am in support of how well the story was acted out to the point where you accept and even support it come what may. I also like the hearing the French language with the subtitles too. Somehow the fact that it is in a different tongue causes me to pay more attention upping the emotional quota considerably. Definite must watch for a good evenings entertainment. Snacking a must with a tasty drink too. No interruptions or you lose the bonding aspect. Stay still and it pays-off nicely...enjoy

Jean Dujardin plays "Richard Malinowski", a model cop and family man in this film loaded with famous actors like J. P. Cassel, Aurélien Recoing and J. F. Garreaud. Beautiful Caroline Santini plays the unknowing victim of a psychopath so well you can't forget her case easily. Visually beautiful, great music, a rather classic/ conventional plot in the beginning, but the movie doesn't deliver if you know how to wait.Claire M., the long-suffering wife of our main character, could've been better developed, following instead the well trodden lines of the "wife that doesn't understand the hero, leaves him at the worst moment, is cold and always complaining". I'd expect a better leading female character, at least in a film made in 2007.What I most liked is the cop culture of fellowship, even when they know what their "brothers in arms" are up to. They protect each other. For good or for bad :).Enjoy!PS: To the fellow IMDb reviewer "kosmasp": Yes, Dujardin is very well known in France, he's always at Cannes, having just won the best actor prize there with the beautiful film "L'Artiste" with Bérénice Bejo, for instance.

Contre-Enquete is the prime example of a movie that is not really well directed, but that is carried on by his actors. If you like your direction tight and extensive, this is not a movie for you.You seldom feel rushed into the action, the scenes are too short and everything happens in the same time, which makes it difficult to get attached to the characters. In its first twenty minutes, the movie out pours a lot of emotional scenes that comes out as being cheesy because...well the movie is just starting! Nobody really cares about the characters yet.But there is all the bad I have to say. The odyssey of a broken down father to find the true murderer of his daughter is a gripping tale that has Jean Dujardin and Laurent Lucas as their shining stars. Their play is subtle, tight and leaves the viewer in a total state of confusion towards the potential ending of the movie.It could have been a landslide due to its predictability and its sloppiness, but Dujardin and Lucas made this an overall rather enjoying experience.

Through persistent correspondence over the course of three years and new elements in his possession, police captain Malinowski starts to doubt the man convicted for his 10 year old daughter's rape and murder is actually guilty and starts a counter-investigation on his own.Written and directed by ex-cop Franck Mancuso (also co-writer of the great 36 Quai Des Orfèvres), Contre-Enquête is a very good, well-made film, certainly the best French crime film of 2007 out of those I've seen so far (which include Le Deuxième Soufflé, Chrysalis and ex-top spot holder Pars Vite Et Reviens Tard). So-hot-right-now Jean Dujardin is very good in his first truly serious role I've seen, and the rest of the cast do a good job as well, especially Laurent Lucas as Daniel Eckmann, the convict. The script, based on a short story by Lawrence Block (screenwriter of Wong Kar-Wai's English-language effort My Blueberry Nights) is greatly written and keeps the suspense going and the viewer wondering until the very end. Good crime thriller, check it out if you have the chance.