RESTLESS (Sans Répit)

(director/writer: Régis Blondeau; screenwriter: Julien Colombani; cinematographer: Danny Elsen; editor: Baxter; music: Julien Grunberg/ Paul-Marie Barbier; cast: Franck Gastambide (Lieutenant Thomas Blin ), Simon Abkarian (Marelli), Michaël Abiteboul (Marc), Tracy Gotoas (Naomi), Victoire Zenner (Louise), Jemima West (Agathe), Nabil Missoumi (Barcelo), Serge Hazanavicius (Commissaire Vaubour); Runtime: 96; MPAA Rating: NR; producers; Thomas Bruxelle, Julien Colombani: Netflix; 2022-France-in French with English subtitles)

“Everyone featured is involved in foul play.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

First time French filmmaker, the former cinematographer, Régis Blondeau, poorly directs and co-writes this action crime pic. His co-writer is Julien Colombani. It’s an unnecessary, an absurd and by the numbers remake of the good 2014 South Korean movie A Hard Day by Seong-hun Kim.

Lieutenant Thomas Blin (Franck Gastambide) is a corrupt cop in a coastal French city who is on his way to the funeral of his recently deceased mother, who is waiting to be buried. While driving, in a panic, he tries to cover up his crime after accidentally running someone over on the highway as he tries avoiding a dog on the road. After putting the vic’s body in his BMW trunk, Thomas buries him in his mother’s grave by going to the morgue to put his corpse in her coffin. Meanwhile a colleague (Michaël Abiteboul) investigates the disappearance, and finds out the vic was a drug dealer. Thomas also finds out there  was a witness, a wanted drug smuggler (Nabil Missoumi), who keeps calling to threaten him. Thereby the cop tries tracking him down.

The cop’s life continues to spiral downward in this tale of bad cops who make bad decisions, while the film only becomes more illogical and more a character study than an action pic.  The three action sequences show a man who is nearly drowned in a toilet, a heavy object crushes a car with a man in it and a driver inside a bombed car is burned.

Everyone featured is involved in foul play, it’s that kind of unappealing film. 

REVIEWED ON 3/22/2022  GRADE: C+