AllMovie

Reminiscent of Bertrand Tavernier's L.627, Le Petit Lieutenant is a suitably gritty and engaging look at police work in present-day Paris. With strong performances, a grimy, muted palette, and an absorbingly detailed mise-en-scène, director Xavier Beauvois has come up with a memorable policier, ranging from the seemingly mundane details of stakeouts and canvassing witnesses to the dangerous thrill of being face-to-face with a killer. Beauvois never lets us forget that these people have lives that go beyond their work, and his numerous characters perform vibrantly enough that we believe their lives extend beyond the screen as well. Jalil Lespert is an immensely likable presence as the eponymous rookie detective, and both Roschdy Zem, as a veteran Moroccan detective who still faces some bigotry from his co-workers, and Nathalie Baye, as the female detective in charge of the unit, convey the sense that they are particularly proud of what they do because they've had to fight harder than most to achieve what they have. Through beautifully realized scenes of the cops hanging out in various groupings, we get a very genuine sense of their camaraderie and their character. Certainly, they are not all heroic in their everyday interactions. Baye's performance as an alcoholic who has never gotten over the death of her young son is subtly tinged with pain and regret, and a longing for a relief that she cannot allow herself. Le Petit Lieutenant is an exemplary genre piece, melding a down-and-dirty 1970s vibe with a very modern perspective on the globalized nature of contemporary Paris.