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04/12/07
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Le Petit Lieutenant (2006)
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Reviews Counted:52
Fresh:41
Rotten:11
Average Rating:6.9/10
Consensus: A gritty, languidly paced crime drama that blends old-fashioned ambiance with modern cynicism.
Theatrical Release:Sep 8, 2006 Limited
Synopsis: A gripping police noir, Le Petit Lieutenant tells the story of Antoine, an ambitious young cop from the provinces who joins a plainclothes crime unit in Paris. Antoine spends his days eagerly... [More]
Starring: Jalil Lespert, Nathalie Baye, Roschdy Zem, Antoine Chappey
Director: Xavier Beauvois
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Reviews for Le Petit Lieutenant
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04/23/09
... a bit too underplayed for its own good.
09/08/06
... one that will likely earn more respect from viewers than it will passion.
12/30/06
Just as the French may overrate our cinema (Jerry Lewis, anyone?), we may overrate theirs. Take Le Petit Lieutenant -- please.
12/15/06
Top CriticGives the audience a strong sense that you're watching how things really go down in a police station... only without all the action and excitement of a TV cop show.
03/24/07
As a portrayal of the angst that permeates most police work...certainly a success. As drama, however, it's far from riveting.
03/03/07
Feels like a TV pilot which, perhaps, it was meant to be. But, see it for Baye.
10/14/06
Mundane real life can make for some pretty dull viewing, and the only thing that enlivens Beauvois' anti-thriller is Baye's beautiful performance, a career high that culminates in a tip of the hat to her first great director, Francois Truffaut.
09/08/06
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.
09/08/06
Top Critic... you can sense Baye's struggling within the limits imposed on her.
01/26/07
The Young Lieutenant seems so determined to reproduce the drudgery of police work, it's boring for the first hour, and only marginally more exciting for the second.
11/16/05
Tragedy, when it comes, does not involve us -- we're kept at arm's length through to the final retribution.
09/05/06
Top CriticLe 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.
09/08/06
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.
09/20/06
Top CriticWhen 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.
09/27/06
Top CriticOther than the unnecessary meandering in the first half, this is first-rate, as both a detective film and a character piece.
10/12/06
Le Petit Lieutenant looks at Antoine's life with lyricism.
01/12/07
A film about normal people doing a difficult and mostly unspectacular job. But difficult, unspectacular and - especially - normal can be nice too sometimes.
11/16/05
You could call it anything but by-the-book.
09/07/06
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