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LE PETIT LIEUTENANT
This is the kind of movie—the police procedural—that the French have always done better than anyone: a lot of cops standing around in leather jackets, cigarettes dangling from their lips, talking cynically, and eventually getting their man. The lieutenant here is a kid who has transferred to Paris in search of action. He—tragically—gets more than he bargained for working a routine case. And so do we, thanks to the great Nathalie Baye, playing the leader of his squad. She's tough, smart, decisive—and wistfully attracted to the innocent young recruit. Flirting with sentiment, the film never embraces it; pursuing grace, it never loses its gruffness. In France, Baye won that nation's Oscar-equivalent. In the U.S., she (and her vehicle) have not won the audience they richly deserve.
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