MUBI

“Polisse” synopsis is so dull and poor that I am glad I had not read it before watching the movie. The “journalist covering police assigned to a juvenile division that enters an affair with one of her subjects” is only part of a wider and more complex quilt of characters and interesting stories.

Maïwenn brings up the dirty and dark side of Paris with the help of an excellent team of child actors – Malonn Lévana, the lovely little girl of “Tomboy” (where she plays the sister of the leading character) is someone to keep an eye on – and the best known actors of the French cinema of today: Marina Foïs, Sandrine Kiberlain, Nicolas Duvauchelle, Frédéric Pierrot, Karin Viard, Louis-Do de Lencquesaing, Alice de Lencquesaing (L’heure d’été, Le père de mes enfants), Jérémie Elkaïm (La guerre est déclarée), Karole Rocher, and others.

This team of stars, however, can be a double-edged sword: at the same time it calls the attention and arouses curiosity, it can also hinder the identification with the characters and/or concentration. It was just me, perhaps, but every time a known face appeared on the screen, my mind would unplug and try to remember in which movie I had seen that actor.

Despite the great cast and some memorable moments, “Polisse” is average. It looks like a police tv drama show, both in format and melodrama, but a very good one it´s true. If made for tv, all the crucial subjects raised by Maïwenn – such as pedophilia, social welfare, immigration, violence – could be better placed and developed, taking in mind the way she chose to portray them. Choices, by the way, seem to be carefully taken. Melissa ´s “ugly panties” being childlike and having the saying “spank me” that she didn´t know what means may work as an alert on how we collaborate with these sexual “fair tale” fantasies. The saying in English (spank me) may also be a criticism on our contemporary times where we usually follow global and standardized models/ideas, sometimes without really knowing or thinking about what they mean, what can be also seen, let´s say, in the episode of the “telephone teenager girl”. “But it was a smartphone”.

Although I don’t think “Polisse” is that good, Maïwenn definitely got my attention. I liked a lot her character Melissa and how it develops and grow as the story unfolds; I was delighted with the funny discussion over the changes in the French language (on how we are killing our language); and the final scene really impressed me – the ending can be melodramatic as said Peter Bradshaw, but definitely not unconvincing.
That said, I will sure check Maïwenn’s previous movies and will be waiting for more.