Accomplices (2009)

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

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

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

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.

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

The opening sequence of "Accomplices", with a body floating down a river, will almost certainly have a strong resonance for those who remember "Twin Peaks". In this case the waterlogged corpse is that of a rootless young man, Vincent, rather than the 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. The two detectives assigned to the case are Herve and Karine, who enjoy a complex friendship, coupled with an efficient work relationship. 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 various pursuits in the weeks prior to his death. They discover that the rent-boy murder victim was bi-sexual, and had been involved in a love affair with a high-school student, Rebecca, who has disappeared. Shortly thereafter, the detectives are informed that the apparently demure, middle-class Rebecca had become embroiled in Vincent's sex trade activities, leaving them uncertain whether the missing girl may be the unknown killer, or another victim.Writer/director Mermoud has created believable and sympathetic personalities for his four principal protagonists. His actors' fine performances ensure that an audience remains interested in the fate of their characters until the story's two time-lines are integrated in an unexpected and poignant conclusion. "Accomplices" is an exceptional film with an intriguing narrative arc unfolding in an original manner.

"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.