Le torrent

It seemingly looks like a thriller made before the sixties or a Chabrol -like work ,although it features the cliché you find here there and everywhere in the French contemporary cinema : the prodigal father , who divorced his teenage girl's mom ,who of course has so brilliantly succeeded he deals with Japan ,no less! Of course the new wife is modern , all-smile, educated and genial .And the half-brother is adorable .Hunky dory for the "feel good" movie which mars the French scene.

But with the accidental death of the mother , this actually turns into a tragedy ;it could have been a psychological drama a la Simenon:but the characters are cardboard ,and an excellent actor such as José Garcia is wasted in this part of the prodigal but tremendous father ; the plot is rather poor and never generates any real suspense ; the trick of the computer is hackneyed ,and only a moron would leave intimate-and I mean intimate- photographs in a computer without an access code Consequently , the mysterious lover threatens to no avail .For good measure , in the tradition of Peter Lovesey , Anne Le Ny casts herself as the police chief.

Let's accentuate the positive : the cinematography ,which takes advantage of the mountain landscapes is splendid indeed ;all that concerns Darius after his mother's death rings true: his calls, his use of the mobile :he's certain she'll come back.

But the most interesting character is portrayed by seasoned André Dussolier ,who plays the amateur detective :after all he had played three times Agatha Christie's Beresford notably in "mon petit doigt m'a dit" ("by the pricking of my thumbs") in which Le Ny also appeared at the time!

Average-to-good.

As in really down ... falling down ... maybe not a rabbit hole, but you get what I mean! Therefor once again no pun intended - the movie has a tragic father ... who has to digest some quite bad news ... a daughter who feels guilty/responsible but also wants to do everything for her family ... for everyone else ... almost dismissing her own feelings because of that.

Good intentions and all that - yes everything would be easier if the very first decisions would make sense, would be the "right" one ... but than you would not have the movie. It is tough to pick out one clear evil character ... yes they are wrong in certain aspects, but you understand their actions ... again, I am not condoning or even saying one should do that ... actually the opposite! Be truthful .. it will be easier for everyone involved ... dead and living.

I mean, very very very boring drama, which looks like a saturday evening show on TV. Predictable, slow, talkative, with a cast who doesn't seem to be concerned. You have the feeling to fall asleep watching this one. It is supposed to be psychological, maybe, I sincerely don't know.... It is the kind of French drama that annoys me at the most. Nothing seems too be authentic here, only superficial, hollow. I could hardly make it till the end. But this kind of failure is rather rare in movies destined to the large screen, movie theaters. Rather Tv audiences, in their coach. No, I prefer forget this one.

I came here to see whether the movie was worth watching or not, and then I saw the low ratings, but when I started to read the few reviews, I couldn't help shaking my head and begin doubting what I've just read.

I don't really know if the movie is OK or not, but judging for these reviewers' grammar and syntax, and the pride and conceit to explain things with the language skills of a three-year-old, making it so hard to understand anything they say, I'm wondering if perhaps these rudimentary viewers missed crucial moments in the movie, or if their lack of capability to convey a simple idea is proportional to that of receiving a simple concept.

So, all in all, the quality of the film remains unknown, so does the quality of the acting and the plot, yet, what is not unknown but rather evident is the unfortunate quality of its viewers, who don't even bother to check what they are about to publish.

I'm a foreign English speaker and I wouldn't be torturing people here if I weren't able to communicate my point of view. It's a matter of respect for the others.

Please allow me to introduce you to A. I. Say chatgpt. You can go there, write tour review in your own language, ask for a decent translation to English and voila.