Including many homages to past crime films, The Connection is an interesting procedural with too few surprises until its final act. At the film’s beginning, Pierre Michel (Jean Dujardin, excellent) is a hard-working cop investigating youth drug-related crimes. His effectiveness gets him promoted to magistrate, where he is tasked with investigating France’s organized crime network, led by Gaetan Zampa (Gilles Lellouche, also excellent). Upon his promotion, Michel proves skilled, not least because he’s willing to bend the rules, sometimes even to break the law, all in the name of justice. That Michel is unreasonably obsessive about catching Zampa is of no concern to him, but is still a source of severe worry for his family.
Which brings us to The Connection’s greatest merit: its characters. Writer/director Cédric Jimenez and co-writer Audrey Diwan layer both Zampa and Michel, crafting each man as complex human beings with merits and flaws aplenty. Here Zampa being on the “wrong” side of the law does not mean we dislike him. And, though we can certainly root for Michel, we do not necessarily approve of everything he does. By making both men complex, Jimenez and Diwan hold our attention. That they develop several secondary characters well also helps.
The Connection’s second greatest merit: some of it’s filmmaking technique. Its production design mirrors 1970s era crime films. And it’s costuming is genius. As the plot’s era shifts from ‘70s to ‘80s, so too does the style of characters’ outfits.
The film’s biggest weakness? The plot. For much of the picture’s run-time it is borderline boiler plate, including many seemingly obligatory scenes.
Yet, this flaw is of relatively minor consequence, partially because the actors and characters are so good we accept predictable developments. For example, we always know Pierre’s wife Jacqueline (Celine Sallette) will eventually express unhappiness with her husband’s choices, but Dujardin and Sallette sell the conflict so convincingly that we don’t mind the moment’s predictability.
Then comes the finale, about which I will say very little, except this: it is at least a little surprising. And also terrific, in all regards. Yes, at times The Connection is too procedural, but it is quite good all the same.
What are your thoughts on The Connection?
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FLIXCHATTER FILM BLOG 
Hi Josh, thanks for the review! When or if it comes around, I’ll gladly watch it.
Hi Cindy! I can’t wait to see this one too, bummed that I couldn’t go to the screening but glad Josh could make it!
Btw, the film I reviewed yesterday should be something up your alley too, definitely one of my faves of the year!
I am pretty certain you’d like it. Ruth, too, actually. Good acting, strong characters, some humor and some doses of action to boot. It’s quite good.
I look forward to seeing this film, hopefully it can find a US distributor soon. If not, I’ll just rent it on Bluray. Nice review Josh!
Never mind, I just looked it up on IMDB and it’s opening wide here on May 15th.
Apparently it’s opening at the Lagoon at the end of April (so said the fest employee who introduced it).
Which is to say you’ll have your chance soon, Ted. And I think you’ll like it.
wow, it’s uncanny how similar Dujardin & Lellouche look! Sounds like a pretty good film.
It certainly is uncanny, isn’t it?
And it works for this flick, as the characters are meant to be something like mirrors of each other. Though it does occasionally take some time adjusting to which character they’ve cut to.
Excellent review! I definitely need to see this.
Thank you!
This played at the recent Film Festival, I wrote about it but lost it before I could post it! I thought pretty much what you outlined, the characters and acting was so good I could forgive the flaws. I want to watch it again!
Me too, actually. I liked it a lot when I first saw it, but I think I like it even more upon reflection.
I like police procedural films, so I’m looking forward to this one. It’s nice to see Jean Dujardin in something like this after his Oscar success.
I never saw The Artist (scandalous, I know), but he is really good here. So are all of the other actors.
And if you like police procedurals, I think you are guaranteed to enjoy this one.
Sounds interesting Josh. Love that second image – the colours and lighting are beautiful. Off to check on the UK release date…
That second image (selected by Ruth, actually) is quite stunning. That entire scene feels a bit like a particular sequence in The Departed, or another in Donnie Brasco, or a slew of others in a slew of other films. Like I said at the beginning of the review, there are loads of homages to past crime films. Impressively, none of them feel derivative, though.
Lots of good film making here, in other words.
Will you be able to see it? What’s your release date?
Can’t see a UK release date listed on imdb yet but fingers crossed we’ll get one soon 🙂
Here’s to hoping!
Oh that sounds great. It’s been a while since I saw Jean in something good, so I’m definitely gonna check it out
Hi, Sati. This is quite good. And Dujardin is terrific in it.
Hopefully you wind up liking it as much as I did!
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