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Chrysalis
Synopsis: Chrysalis is set in Paris, the near future. Euro Police officer David Hoffman is on the trail of international criminal Nicolov, while a young woman is undergoing groundbreaking therapy in a research facility presided over by her own mother. These two plots slowly converge, exposing a terrible secret... Review: I’ve been purposely vague in my synopsis because this is one of those movies that come out of nowhere and totally knocks your socks off.
Opening with a double salvo of a car crash from the point of view of the driver’s seat, quickly followed by a frenetic gun battle filmed similarly to last year’s The Kingdom – just over the shoulder of one of the protagonists while bursts of bullets hurl towards you – this really hooks you in from the get-go.
However this isn’t a mindless action flick (although we all here enjoy those too). As is typical with French thrillers, we’re thrown in at the deep end and have to figure out what the hell is going on. Exposition is only given towards the end, by which time most of the audience will have figured out what was actually happening. The production design for the movie is gorgeous. It has the same washed out, monochrome look of Gattaca or Equilibrium. Here, the scenes at the clinic are all in white, while Hoffman’s investigation is set around dark colours. It is only at the end that the two palettes bleed into one another. . It is unfortunate that the clinic scenes tend to drag the viewer from the more action oriented scenes of the investigation. The two plots are running at different tempos: the clinic tries to give off a languid, calm vibe, while Hoffman is a driven man obsessed with locating Nicolov and the audience feels his passion.
There are some interesting gadgets on display, including a hologram baton (makes more sense when you see it), doors have retinal id locks and open with a satisfying Clunk. The whole city is presented as contemporary but with a few tweaks here and there to give it a futuristic feel. Verdict: This is Julien Leclercq’s first feature movie as director and he certainly has skills, especially when presenting the action. As I said at the top of the review, this totally knocked me down and I’ll be singing its praises til I lose my voice. 8 out of 10 (MikeOutWest)
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