Dir. Claude Schmitz (2024)
A private investigator teams up with his niece to investigate the mysterious death of his brother, who people keep saying that they see alive.
I'm not the guy to go to when discussing noir movies, largely because it's an area of film that I'm a bit uneducated on compared to other genres. I like them, and I don't know that I've ever seen one that I didn't enjoy (quite possibly because I'm only drawn to films that are already acclaimed int he genre), but it's not something I'm all that familiar with. Today's film, a newly released French noir with a fantastic family mystery at the center, is a stellar effort from an indie director who clearly is much more well versed in the film noir genre than I happen to be. It shows, and it's a damn fine effort, even if it does at times get a little convoluted.
Gabriel Laurens (Olivier Rabourdin) is a private investigator who is down on his luck, deciding to investigate the death of his brother to find some closure from a long, upsetting family history. His niece Jade (Louise Leroy) has her own questions, stemming from her mother Shelby's (Kate Moran) involvement with a drug cartel and a motorcycle gang. When it becomes apparent that there was more to Gabriel's brother's death than first appears, the pair are forced into a plot of betrayal, drugs, and murder, and Gabriel begins to discover what is actually important in the remainders of his tragic life.
The Other Laurens is a great example of how to make a modern noir with lots of mystery elements and some phenomenal casting. Rabourdin is excellent in his dual role as Gabriel and Francois Laurens, and Leroy does a great job as his brooding and spoiled niece. They are at the center of the tragedy, and their lives are tragic for altogether different, though at times strikingly similar, reasons. It's a sad story, made all the sadder by cinematographer Florian Berutti's melancholic lens that sets everything up. Writer/director Schmitz does a phenomenal job of keeping everything in front of him in a story that easily could've gone sideways, and while the story definitely does become a little circular and fall prey to a few pitfalls that were practically unavoidable, Schmitz maintains a watchability in the film that some noirs struggle to present.
There were a few down parts of the film, however. It is convoluted, though certainly never more than its able to handle, and some of the performances are a little lackluster. The film develops fairly slowly, a common occurrence in the genre from my limited experience, and there's a lot of behind-the-scenes drama going on. What's intended to be revelatory doesn't pack quite the punch it should because of so much "foreshadowing," though to be fair I don't know that it was ever intended to be. Schmitz packages the story in a way that the "reveal" is hardly the point, and I commend his restraint in trying to pepper in too many mysteries that don't particularly need to exist to make the film successful.
By and large, The Other Laurens is a well done, well made, and well acted indie neo-noir that focuses much more heavily on family drama and lurid histories than it does the typical detective fare. The performances are almost all solid, there's some dark humor that works incredibly well for this type of film, and a commentary on a life of tragedy that feels a lot deeper than you usually find from films like this. I really enjoyed the play between Rabourdin and Leroy, who both really knocked their roles out of the park. If you're a fan of this type of film, this one will be right up your alley.
Who this movie is for: Neo-noir fans, French drama lovers, Spurned lovers
Bottom line: The Other Laurens is a great indie noir/drama, and while it's not the type of film I would usually gravitate towards, it was done well enough that I really enjoyed it. It certainly won't be everyone's cup of tea, and rest assured it is most decidedly not a horror film. Nonetheless, it's a great effort from director Claude Schmitz, and it's a fantastic film to fall under Yellow Veil's release platform. Check this one out if it sounds like something you'd enjoy.
