Le Premier Cercle - Inside Ring

Milo Malakian (Jean Reno) has already had one son killed by the police because of the family's criminal activities, but it doesn't stop him in carrying on with his life of crime. When Milo begins planning a big heist, robbing money from a plane's cargo hold, he doesn't plan on his son, Anton (Gaspard Ulliel) falling in love with his mother's nurse, Elodie.

The policeman, Inspecteur Saunier, who killed Milo's son, is on the tail of the Malakan gang and he knows something big is going down. Anton is fed up with the life of crime and wants out of the heist and runs off to Italy with Elodie, but Milo has other ideas and sends one of his men, Rudy, a long-time friend of Anton's, to do away with Elodie. Faced with Rudy holding a gun to Elodie's head, Anton kills Rudy and then goes back to France to face his father, telling him that he'll do th heist but then he's out of the gang for good.

The heist takes place, but the police are there too and Anton gets shot. As the film draws to a close, Anton dies in Milo's arms and the last scene is Milo going to the hospital where Elodie has just given birth to her and Anton's baby.

I usually like Jean's French films much better than his Hollywood ones, but this is a bit of a let-down. In this, Jean is a selfish overpowering bully and it just doesn't suit him. The atmosphere is quite suffocating, and even though there's crime, guns and killings, there's nothing suspenseful within the whole film, in fact the only part that the viewer has any empathy for is when Jean's poor son dies. The best part about this film? Milo's huge and beautiful old house in the South of France.

All pictures belong to their respective owners with gratitude. All text belongs to me.