A quiet powerhouse of a film, an implacable, uncompromising French police drama, both old-fashioned and modern, that underlines the reasons impeccably made crime stories do so well on-screen.

| Mar 16, 2007

Le Petit Lieutenant shows how good French movies can be when they stay French and don't try to go international.

| Feb 8, 2007

... you can sense Baye's struggling within the limits imposed on her.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jan 26, 2007

The film's plot, revolving around a murder investigation that turns nasty, ticks along smoothly and efficiently. But it's ultimately more of a character drama, and a reminder that great acting often has little to do with words.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 19, 2007

Le Petit Lieutenant looks at Antoine's life with lyricism.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 12, 2007

Beauvois makes the milieu his own, too, showing us credible and affecting human beings caught up in a world that often reveals humanity at its worst.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 11, 2007

The movie's realism is unimpeachable, though American cops might be stunned by the idea of a half-dozen detectives being assigned to the murder of an anonymous floater.

| Jan 11, 2007

...More than any film in recent memory, Le Petit Lieutenant conveys the relentless toll of big-city police work.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Dec 15, 2006

Just as the French may overrate our cinema (Jerry Lewis, anyone?), we may overrate theirs. Take Le Petit Lieutenant -- please.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Dec 15, 2006

[Xavier Beauvois] is a clean and sure director, with a good selective eye: he knows where we ought to be looking at any moment. We can hope for more Beauvois films with worlds of their own.

Full Review | Oct 26, 2006

A quiet powerhouse of a film, an implacable, uncompromising French police drama, both old-fashioned and modern, that underlines the reasons impeccably made crime stories do so well on screen.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Oct 12, 2006

Xavier Beauvois' police procedural owes more to Prime Suspect and Hill Street Blues than it does to any film genre. And it's all the better for it, if you can withstand the glacial pace and loving attention to the smallest details.

Full Review | Oct 12, 2006

When the action finally picks up in the pursuit of a ruthless Russian gang of killers, the relationship between Caroline and Antoine is delivered a devastating emotional wallop.

| Sep 27, 2006

Le Petit Lieutenant is a flinty, almost hardhearted work about characters who have lost almost everything in pursuit of some undefinable abstraction, like honor or their country or doing the right thing.

Full Review | Sep 20, 2006

... a bit too underplayed for its own good.

| Sep 8, 2006

Le Petit Lieutenant, keeps such a lazy pace, with so many scenes that fail to move the story forward, that it should be cited for failing to meet the minimum speed for a crime drama.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Sep 8, 2006

The relationship between an enthusiastic young Paris homicide detective and his middle-age female supervisor is as important as the murders they are trying to solve in Xavier Beauvois' taut police procedural.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 8, 2006

Le Petit Lieutenant spends too much time laying the groundwork for a story that could be told more succinctly, but Beauvois works hard to establish office chemistry and orient Lespert to his new surroundings.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Sep 8, 2006

Le Petit Lieutenant spends too much time laying the groundwork for a story that could be told more succinctly, but Beauvois works hard to establish office chemistry and orient Lespert to his new surroundings.

| Original Score: B- | Sep 8, 2006

The results, while a bit overlong, are engaging and real.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 7, 2006