The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Mesrine

Vincent Cassel in Mesrine

Guy Ritchie's The Man From U.N.C.L.E. displays the further decline of Ritchie from his scrappy opening salvoes of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. This retread of a rather lame 1960s television series suffers from the same bloat and blandness of Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes films. Henry Cavill brings a little more sardonic swagger than the late Robert Vaughn, but Armie Hammer and Alicia Vikander are wasted. The Italian retro style of the film is diverting, but this is an action thriller that doesn't thrill.

Much more entertaining is Jean-Francois Richet's Mesrine, released in two parts. Vincent Cassel is well cast as an unrepentant thug with a soupcon of charm. A parade of distinguished French thespians such as Gerard Depardieu, Mathieu Amalric, Michel Duchaussoy, Cecile De France and Ludivine Sagnier give controlled and memorable performances. A firm control of his actors seems to be a hallmark of Richet's work. Of late, Depardieu seems to bellow like a sea lion in his performances. Here, he is markedly restrained and workmanlike. Amalric usually portrays pervy, intellectual types with an array of tics. In Mesrine, he has a wary, almost paranoid intensity that finds power through stillness. As Cassel gambols through scenes with a dog-like garrulousness and inattention, his partner in crime Amalric perches immobile foreseeing their inevitable downfall.

Not a groundbreaker visually, Richet's films reminds me of  Franklin J. Schaffner, but nervier. They both share a gusto for masculine yarns. Mesrine has four jailbreaks and much mayhem. Politics, though, seem to be out of Richet's range and the script's attempts to link Mesrine with the revolutionary fervor of the 60s and 70s fall flat. Still, Mesrine never bored me for any of its four hours. (4/22/16)