Anthony Zimmer (2005)

I love this movie so much

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

"Anthony Zimmer" is a conventional romantic thriller and con movie which finds a gang of Russian criminals and law enforcement agents frantically attempting to apprehend master criminal Anthony Zimmer.The film was directed by Jerome Salle, whose style is unimaginative and at times dull. The film was remade by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck as "The Tourist", a much better film. The only thing Salle's film has over Donnersmarck's is the presence of the always stunning Sophia Marceau. She plays Zimmer's love interest.5/10 – Worth no viewings. See "The Tourist" instead, a critically maligned ode to Hitchcock and Stanley Donen.

Anthony Zimmer (2005)Ah, this has its moments, but it sure is overly clever and at times overly derivative. The interactions and scenario of an elite crook and some undercover and suspicious types on the boundaries of the big hunt for him are taken straight from a lot of previous movies--even from "North by Northwest," of all things, which you'll catch in the train conversation and in the general nature of the leading woman in both cases. It's all well enough done to keep you watching if this is your kind of movie, and I didn't mind traipsing along even as it seemed to bowl into a lot of old tricks.What was worse, overall, was the dependence on a huge trick, one that you might or might not anticipate, and which comes along at the very end like a splotch of ketchup on your plate. Yeah, yeah, we were warned the escapee was a master of disguise and had had a lot of plastic surgery, but still, it's just not enough, not enough.Everything is set in the south of France, Nice to be exact, and is pretty and fun (like a lot of other movies set there). The movie itself is French, of course, and in one nice scene a man starts to ask a question in English, and another man (one of the chief cops, we suppose) says, "I don't speak in English," or something to that effect. It seems a perfect point to make as so many movies these days are partly in English as if to make it easier on British and American (and Aussie and South African and Singaporean, yes yes) audiences. (A lot of French films in particular use a bit of English--or a lot--to do more than just sound international.)But I find an interesting nuance mostly because the movie is otherwise a very straightforward affair. Enjoy. See it on a plane. Have alternatives in mind.

In Paris, the international police force and the Russian mafia are chasing Anthony Zimmer, an intelligent man responsible for laundry of dirty money in France. Zimmer was submitted to a plastic surgery, and his new face and voice are completely unknown. The only means to reach Zimmer is through his beloved mistress Chiara (Sophie Marceau), who is under surveillance of the police and the mobsters. While traveling by train to the country nearby Nice, the common man François Taillandier (Yvan Attal), who has the same body shape of Zimmer, is select by Chiara as if he were Zimmer and used as a bait to lure those that are pursuing her. When Taillandier is chased by the professional Russian killers, he runs the French police when the real situation begins to be disclosed to him."Anthony Zimmer" is a great thriller, with a situation that recalls Hitchcock's classic "North By Northwest", i.e., a man mistaken for another and pursued by criminals. The attractive story has many twists, a nice cast with the gorgeous Sophie Marceau and the efficient Yvan Attal in the lead roles. The beautiful locations in France is an amazing tour in this wonderful country. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "Anthony Zimmer A Caçada" ("Anthony Zimmer The Hunting")

Anthony Zimmer is an average suspension movie, but if you have seen Cypher (http://imdb.com/title/tt0284978), you know how the movie is going to unwind from the first five minutes on. The story is very similar (not to say, in some parts identical), although in Cypher, the main character actually "deleted" his memory, so the entire "Who's the guy?" game actually makes sense.As has been mentioned elsewhere, even when alone, Zimmer doesn't act like himself, and it doesn't really make sense why, unless to lead on the viewer. The movie has a lot of potential, but doesn't go far beyond the average, which is a pity. Sophie Marceau pulls off her part nicely (you don't really see her 40 years, do you?), and tragically outshines everybody else. The characters remain flat and two-dimensional (even the main character...), and the final twist just doesn't come off right (especially since most viewers will have the identity shuffle figured out by now).If you haven't seen Cypher, maybe this movie works for you. If you have seen it, this really isn't a lot of fun, as it gets boring pretty quickly. It gets an average rating for the nice camera work and Sophie Marceau, but I'm sad to say it would probably have scored higher if the producers had directly copied Cypher.