Ad Vitam star Guillaume Canet is also the co-writer of this French action-thriller for Netflix, which also stars Stéphane Caillard, Nassim Lyes, Zita Hanrot, and Alexis Maneti in a story about a dedicated member of the GIGN, a counterterrorism unit of the French national police, and the unexpected moment when corruption and forces greater than he combined to take almost everything he ever loved. Ad Vitam, “For Life” in Latin, was the motto Franck’s father carried with him into the GIGN, and Franck followed him into the ranks of the elite unit. So what does an honest agent do when he’s framed by those who are much less honest? He protects his pregnant wife, and their life together, at all costs.
AD VITAM: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The Gist: As Ad Vitam begins, Franck (Canet) has left the GIGN, and instead uses his mountaineering training to rappel down the sides of cathedrals to look for structurally unsound cracks. Léo (Caillard), his wife, is very pregnant, and their attic apartment in Paris is cramped but romantic. It’s a good life. Which is why it’s crazy when attackers dressed in police tactical gear burst into the flat, and both Franck and Léo – who remains extremely pregnant – fight back with a flurry of fists and kicks. What the hell is going on?
Flashback to ten years before, and the swearing-in of new agents to the GIGN. Franck continues his father’s legacy, he meets Léo on the job and they fall in love, and they both bond with their fellow agents Ben (Lyes) and Nico (Maneti). Nico, who has two boys with his wife Manon (Hanrot), believes Franck and Léo would be great parents. Cue an extended training montage, with GIGN teams breaching aircraft, training in hand-to-hand combat, taking target practice, and ascending tall towers. Cue a few heartfelt moments between Franck, Léo, Ben, and Nico and Manon and their kids. And cue the violent incident that dashes all of these delightful moments, and which soon indicates a level of corruption that infects the power centers of the GIGN and other agencies of French federal security.
“And once we retrieve the proof…what do we do with him?” It’s not enough to frame an innocent man like Franck. His adversaries are gonna try to destroy his whole life just to keep their secret safe. But would those targeting him really abduct and kill a pregnant woman? Maybe, but Léo, also GIGN-trained, won’t go without a fight. And Franck, together with Ben as an ally, will be forced to improvise as he works to clear the name of his little family. It’s an improvisation that will include, at various times, a parkour-ish foot chase across the rooftops of Paris, lots of vehicle-to-vehicle automatic weapons fire, and even a propeller-powered parachute floating above the city.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of? Guillaume Canet co-wrote Ad Vitam in addition to starring, and along with his life partner Marion Cotillard, Canet is also the director-star of the recent Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Kingdom.
Performance Worth Watching: A dirty cop with a maniacal fixation on harming the innocent? As Franck’s nemesis in Ad Vitam, an often unhinged Johan Heldenberg definitely understands his assignment.
Sex and Skin: Nothing here.
Memorable Dialogue: Léo lets Franck know he doesn’t have to go it alone. But he also needs to be more transparent with her. “I’m spending my entire pregnancy dealing with your bullshit. I’ll always have your back – but don’t take me for an idiot.”
Our Take: How many shots of GIGN recruits climbing ropes or zeroing their sights on gun ranges do you require in order to be convinced that these people are serious and dedicated? How many instances of domestic bliss do you need to see, and how many characters need to express their desire for Franck and Léo to be parents, for you to accept that these GIGN agents will do this just in time for their own domestic bliss to be threatened with destruction? Ad Vitam includes too many shots of all of the above, and doesn’t firmly establish its central time jump. And while it introduces enough information from the bad guy side of things for the viewer to understand who’s corrupt, the film struggles to define their motives beyond action-thriller “halls of power” vagueness.
So where does that leave Franck and Léo? At the heart of Ad Vitam, Guillaume Canet and Stéphane Caillard are very watchable together. It’s their romantic chemistry that kept us in this, especially as the moves being made against them became increasingly obvious. But it’s also notable when someone who’s pregnant joins the fight, and Léo and her unborn child being under duress definitely levels up the concern as Ad Vitam reaches its gun-toting showdown.
Our Call: Ultimately, Ad Vitam is a STREAM IT. As the chemistry grows between Guillaume Canet and Stéphane Caillard as former federal agents targeted for elimination, it is able to amplify the film’s more rote action thriller elements, which while capably executed are certainly quite predictable.
BLURB
