the title of this review might be confusing, but this is a film with a person going back in time, trying to change what's going to happen in the future. It's almost become a genre of itself, but here's another good take on it.
This film is another French film triumph, like there's been some many for the last years. There's an edge to the French film nowadays, which not only make the a French flow into the cinemas, but also making sure that French films again are getting some severe recognition. At least they should, and this one as well.
It's a well crafted romantic crime thriller with a touch of sci-fi and definitely inspired by film- noir. The film should literary be translated into "The Other Life of Richard Kemp"? Or "Richard Kemp's second life". I like that title way more than the chosen international "Back in crime" or even worse, "Time for murder" as it's called translated into the Scandinavian languages.
The titles are misleading, almost telling this is a clichéd crime story. "L'autre vie..." is a much smarter film than that.
Police Chief Inspector Richard Kemp is knocked on the head and thrown into a river. When he wakes up in the water, he is thrown twenty years back in time, to when he was a young arrogant detective, receiving cassettes from a serial killer. He meets himself as 20 years younger, and approaches himself, but doesn't dare to speak, but starts spying on himself. Richard is back co-existing in 1989, the older Kemp starts working secretly in parallel to undo the mistakes of he younger Kemp, which have let a killer operating for 20 years get away. The older Kemp is also spying on the woman he has fallen in love with 20 years later, the psychologist he first met on the last day of his first life.
It's very difficult to make a consiting story about going back in tim to change the course of the future. It's almost impossble to do it without confusing the audience, and how is it really possible to change a thing which have lead to another course of events. This thriller manages well to both give suspense and room for thoughts, which is completely nessesary to appreciate the film.
Expect this to be remade in Hollywood in a couple of years. Well done! Recommended!
