Vincent Cassel & Gerard Depardieu  in the movie Mesrine: Killer Instinct

The French gangster Jacques Mesrine (1936-1979), whose autobiography "Death Instinct" forms the basis of the enjoyably trashy two-part saga now arriving in U.S. theaters, had the media savvy of John Dillinger, the romantic aura of Clyde Barrow -- Warren Beatty's version, that is -- and a self-mythologizing streak destined for the movies.

Banking less on name recognition than genre favorability, Music Box Films has picked up the two films that make up "Mesrine" for domestic distribution. The first is subtitled "Killer Instinct"; Part 2 is "Public Enemy No. 1."

Let's talk about what "Killer Instinct" is not, before discussing what it is. It is not high-minded or psychologically penetrating. It lacks the dramatic propulsion and severity of the recent, excellent "Un Prophete," to which "Mesrine" screenwriter Abdel Raouf Dafri contributed. While covering a lot of ground, from France to Spain to North America, this isn't a sorrowful portrait of a crime-corroded system, as was the brilliant Italian fact-based drama "Gomorrah."

So what is it? Primarily it's a showcase for Vincent Cassel, who dines out on the role and won a Cesar award (the Gallic Oscar) for his efforts. "Killer Instinct" begins in 1959, with the lace worker's son in the French army in Algeria, torturing suspected terrorists and revealing a ruthless streak that will serve him well in his chosen pursuits to come.

After the war, back in France, he falls into a life of crime like a matinee idol falling onto a bed of starlets and money. "That was incredibly easy," he marvels to his fellow house-burglar, after the first job. At this point Mesrine still lives with his parents, which makes director Jean-Francois Richet's gangster film the first (I think) to include the line: "Leave me the hell alone, Mom!"

In Richet's hands, Mesrine's crime and killing spree is the stuff of split-screen stylization and jabbing editing rhythms and surface cool. The protagonist tears through one relationship after another, and he is shown to be everything American mobsters tend to be in our homegrown portraits of attractive sociopathology: a loving parent, a bloodthirsty maniac, someone who is loyal to his friends, brutal to his women when he's not between the sheets. Whether being beaten in a Quebec prison or, back in France, tooling around in his sports car in sunglasses, Cassel clearly is having the time of his screen life. His zest is infectious. The movie's nothing distinctive in terms of technique, but it certainly moves.

 

MPAA rating: R (for strong brutal violence, some sexual content and language).

Running time: 1:53.

Cast: Vincent Cassel (Jacques Mesrine); Gerard Depardieu (Guido); Cecile de France (Jeanne Schneider); Roy Dupuis (Jean-Paul Mercier); Elena Anaya (Sofia).

Credits: Directed by Jean-Francois Richet; written by Richet and Abdel Raouf Dafri, based on the book "L'instinct de mort" by Mesrine; produced by Thomas Langmann. A Music Box Films release.

Mesrine: Killer Instinct Movie Review - Vincent Cassel & Gerard Depardieu