Redundant and unnecessary.

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Expected more

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Pretty much a remake of "Cypher", Canadian movie made three years before this(2002). Both revolve around a geeky main character, out of their depth in a dangerous world, rescued and in love with a cool good looking action capable femme fatal (Sophie Marceu/Lucy Liu)..who has the answers....and is also in love with them.In the end, despite both of them being geeky *very* everyman characters, their geek personas are in fact a disguise, they are actually the so far unseen central anti hero character (Anthony Zimmer/Sebastian Brooks) of the movie, a very secretive and highly capable independent agent, who's face has never been seem (except by the female central character).In both films, two bad guy organisations (Russian Mafi and French Police/Sunway Corp Digicorp) are chasing after him, however don't know what he looks like.In the end, the bad guy organisations are outsmarted, and the Zimmer/Brooks character escapes with the girl...the only people to witness his face are killed. Both movies even finish off with the respective couples traveling off into the sunset together.Anthony Zimmer is stylish in a typical French way, but Cypher itself is quite stylish and the original and the cleverer of the two. Jeremy Northam's acting is probably more solid, and Cypher is more sophisticated and harder to predict. If you have seen this French Version of Cypher, its worth seeing Cypher as a comparison.

Not very often have I watched a thriller that entertained me as much as this one, throughout its whole duration. I don't think this film made a big splash at the box office or earned much critical acclaim, which is a shame.In my view, its fascinating scenery, the many twists and turns, a fabulous Sophie Marceau, and not least a clever ending, make this pure entertainment to watch and would have deserved better.The film does remind me of Hitchcock at his best.Not all the pieces may fit together all the time, but I don't find this to be an issue with this movie. When the final credits rolled, I was still in a kind of trance smiling to myself about the clever storyline and its convincing presentation.

The only interest in the movie is the relationship between Chiara and the mysterious man. Of course, you guess quite easily the truth, but if you like Chiara you will be in love with the movie. Sophie Marceau has never been as beautiful and demonstrates at last that she is a great actress. There is at least a real sadness, a real mystery in her eyes. The music does a lot for a story: of course, it is very "Hitchcockian". The movie is clearly inspired by Vertigo and by To catch a thief, an it gets some of their respective magic. The only disappointment is Samy Frey, who tries too much to look mysterious. another pleasure of the movie: its location. A wonderful home to die for, appears at the end. It must be located in Ibiza, because i don't think you can find something as wild on the Cote d'Azur nowadays.

There are some movies you watch to learn something, and some you watch to be entertained, and some you watch for both purposes.This is a pure entertainment movie, and I liked it a lot. The most important things in a movie like this are to have a plot that twists and turns but remains at least semi-plausible, to have a reasonably attractive hero, a super-sexy femme fatale and appropriately menacing villains, and above all to keep up the pace no matter what. Anthony Zimmer does all of these things rather well. Throw in the bonus of lots of the high life -- the mountain-top super-house, the suite at the Carlton in Nice and all the rest -- and the extra bonus of a happy ending (I don't think that's a spoiler) and you make a very enjoyable evening out.Don't bother trying to work out later how all the bits fitted together. Some of them don't fit all that well, but then they never do in films like this, and it's not the point. They fit together well enough while you're watching it.I saw this at the annual festival of French films put on by the Alliance Française in Melbourne, Australia. It opened the Festival, and later was shown again at a multiplex. The later showing was originally supposed to be in one 250-seat cinema, but demand was so great that it eventually was shown in three 250-seaters simultaneously, all of which were completely full. We all went home happy.