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THE
CODE (LA MENTALE) Rating:  (out of 5 stars)Director: Manuel Boursinhac Producer: Alain Goldman Writers: Bibi Naceri, Manuel Boursinhac Director of Photography: Kevin Jewison Cast: Samuel Le Bihan, Samy Naceri, Clotilde Courau, Marie Guillard, Michel Duchaussoy Visit the IMDB page for full cast and crew |
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It really is difficult to make a distinctive gangster movie these days…even in France. The Code (La Mentale) adds just about nothing in the way of innovation into an already (for the most part) spent genre. The film's biggest offense, aside from its mundane familiarity, is just how seriously it takes itself. Director Manuel Boursinhac and writer Bibi Naceri pile on run-of-the-mill characters and clichéd story beats to the point where The Code feels more like a movie about gangster films rather than a movie about gangsters. Originality ain't the name of the game here.
You really don't need a plot summary, but for what it's worth, the story goes like this: After spending four years in prison, Dris (Samuel Le Bihan) is set on leaving the crime world behind and pursuing the clean life with his fiancé, Lise (Marie Guillard). But as these things tend to go in gangster movies, temptation arises in the form of Dris' longtime friend and former crime partner, Yanis (Samy Naceri). Yanis wants his best buddy to return to the crime world, and after some betrayal and double crossings that involves a mob boss named Feche (Michel Duchaussoy) and Dris' younger brother, Mel (David Saracino), the ex-con is back to his old criminal ways…in the name of family, honor and certainly "the code."
The title of the film, of course, refers to the code of ethics that exists within a crime family. Familial loyalty is the main theme explored in this film, but it's tackled in a way that lends only a bare minimum of new insight into the subject. Yanis' devotion to Dris is of the extreme variety -- he sees Lise as a direct threat to their friendship and wants nothing more than for the relationship to end. Like in many crime buddy movies, from Mean Streets to Federal Hill, there is an intimate, though not necessarily sexual, dynamic inherent in the friendship. But instead of studying this relationship at any great length, the filmmakers' take on this element feels like little more than a pure recycling of "gangster movie 101" story beats.
Boursinhac, visually, does a nice job with the film, pulling off some intricate shots, but not going out of his way to call attention to the style. However, the atmosphere he creates can border on stifling at times, and if you're going to so completely sacrifice originality, then the tension and excitement level needs to be raised to a much higher peak than what exists here. The acting is all of the serviceable variety, with most of the characters prone to falling into sudden bursts of rage. Samy Naceri's Yanis is the character most directly taken from the genre's textbook, and given that fact, the actor keeps his performance under some amount of control.
After sitting through this film for about
20 minutes (if that), you'll undoubtedly realize that you've seen
this same movie done much better many times before. The Code
doesn't mimic its influences well enough to be satisfyingly entertaining,
and is unwilling to recognize -- and therefore work around --
its glaring shortcomings.
(An IDP Films release. Opens in New York and Los Angeles on
February 13, 2004. Expands to more cities at later dates.)
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