It feels a little rude to judge a film like The Connection without the proper cultural context. Americans are only likely to compare Cédric Jimenez’s film to The French Connection, partly because of the title, but mostly because it actually does tell the French side of the story behind the drug trafficking ring which inspired William Friedkin’s Oscar-winning drama. But the weight of a film like The Connection might be difficult to measure unless one already has a sense of the history surrounding it, and those of us who did not grow up in France – and particularly Marseilles – probably don’t meet that criteria.
The Connection relies a bit too heavily on a pre-existing sense of reverence for its hero, Pierre Michel, who played an instrumental part in dismantling a massive criminal organization. The conclusion of Michel’s life story – to hear The Connection tell it – was an important cultural and political milestone. But without an ingrained sense of appreciation, Jimenez’s film can instead only operate as a straightforward and unremarkable crime drama, dividing its time between somewhat corrupt hero cops and the extended family of criminals whom they chased for the better part of a decade.
Cédric Jimenez directs his film with a slick eye for cinematography and editing, and he pulls yet another impressive performance about of Jean Dujardin (The Artist), who plays Michel as a winsome do-gooder, prone to obsession but – in the film’s best scene – all too willing to admit his failures after his work almost costs him his family. But that sort of emotional highlight is lacking throughout the rest of The Connection, which moves efficiently from plot point to plot point – the warrants! the interrogations! the conspiracy! – and yet too rarely stops to illustrate how they are affecting the personal lives of the film’s extensive cast of characters. “So that happened,” is a routine response to the events of The Connection, and although all the pieces form a tidy little puzzle, the end result has about as much impact as spending two hours assembling a picture out of colored cardboard.
Fans of crime dramas will enjoy the film, but they will also probably leave the theater feeling that they have seen nothing new, either in content or presentation. Unless, perhaps, you are in that target demographic which already knows the tale, and will get a kick out of simply watching it play out in dense period detail. But even then, how exceptional can a film can really be if the only way to appreciate it is while scanning the Cliff’s Notes?
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and the host of The B-Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
