Thanks for the memories!

So much average

Nice effects though.

hyped garbage

I like to think that I have time for a film about a guy whom, whilst on the verge of busting a paedophilia ring, is so into his sports that just prior to undertaking such a daring mission he takes time to watch live coverage of an FA Cup football match on his hotel room's television set. So many thrillers are indebted to the nullified routine and agonised spectacle of it all that they may as well be played out by robots. The films forget that human-beings, made up of flesh and blood, are at the core of any film; human's with thoughts, feelings and, in the case of The Lost Son, interests and hobbies. Amongst other things, this guy's hobby is following football, and he takes most chances he gets out of his busy schedule to enforce such a thing. Alas, I didn't eventually come to have an awful lot of time for The Lost Son; the film an investigative drama in the mould of those old private eye stories which sadly mutates away from its fun and engaging beginning and into that of an espionage-come-international thriller: where it starts as Chandler does modern day multiethnic London, it ends up phoned in dramatics involving twists and whatnot that we find it difficult to take to.Daniel Auteuil plays Xavier Lombard, a private investigator who's left France to live in London; a man specialising in surveillance and detection for clients whom want someone found or watched. We garner he speaks English and Italian on top of his native language, and eventually wonder how a nice guy gets mixed up in such a racket – the early scenes establishing his character doing a job which sees him keep tabs on a some sleazy infidelities, before approaching the guilty party to warn them their partner's onto them. "I've just saved your marriage" he tells them, without dropping them in it post-warning. Lombard, despite smoking, enjoys the physicality of life; he plays football, badly, and gets knocked about by his English opponents (revenge comes at home when he places a 'shipwrekced' submarine sporting the Union Jack at the bottom of his fish tank) and is persistently out-jogged when out jogging. A fairly popular guy, his one other friend is a local call-girl named Natalie (Denicourt) and she's responsible for the film's best line when she notices one of her earlier male clients down the row at a nice restaurant they're dining at. "I think you just ruined his evening...." quips Lombard; "Ah yes....", she replies, "....but earlier on I made his day".It is the Spitz family whom come to Lombard with a job possessing the capacity to hurtle him down a grossly different route; his eventual uncovering of a child trafficking organisation the forcing of him into confronting, indeed repenting, for his inability to successfully save his own son whom died in a car wreck years ago. But that comes later, much later; the decent parts of the film arriving first when it is revealed Leon, a family member to that of the Spitz's, is missing and Lombard is dutifully called to find him again. This leads him onto a trek through London and eventually to Mexico, by way of Suffolk, of course, after some decent cause and effect early on that leads him to a rather sordid place more broadly linked to paedophilia that I did not expect the film to go.I like to think that had The Lost Son been made fifty or so years prior to its actual production date, it might have started with an establishing shot of a piece of city iconography before cutting closer, and closer still, to a small building plus-office-inside that's actually situated on a studio back-lot. Within this office you would find the wily investigative lead with his name printed on the glass section of his door and the neighbouring buildings, plus their exterior, vaguely on show through the window which he always sits with his back toward. Perhaps the guy would have a bit of a drinking problem, something deeply affecting in the past driving him to such a place, but he'd almost always be as just cynical as he is good at going about his business – drinking problems rarely stopped these people succeeding.Chris Menges' film is not a picture of decades ago, it is a picture of near-enough now; times have changed and the lead in The Lost Son is allowed a tragic back-story, but this does not lead to a drinking problem - on the contrary, he is fit and athletic; he is allowed to have people meet with him and ask him to find item "x", but must do so in a large suite to a luxury hotel. Change can be good fun; hybridisation and post-modernity are fine, in moderation, whilst I'm not against the developing of ground genres if it means shifting film noir into an era of "neo" noir, but by this point, I wished the film had placed these proverbial cards on the table nearer the beginning and just given our guy a drinking habit. It is during the early segments that we enjoy the film the most; the first acts then descending into hogwash of the most mundane sort as nearer the end as he zip off abroad sand the film bolts from its genre foundations stable to head for the big, wide world; a sub-Licence to Kill espionage thriller no where near making use of its ground substance that 2002's Dirty Pretty Things would later go on to explore tautly and effectively in its depiction of a sordid, multi-racial base of operations in an affluent part of England's capital city. There are workmanlike traits about The Lost Son, and a good lead performance, but we dislike and find the shattering of his world just as unpleasurable as he eventually does.

Started out OK but quickly annoyed me with its inexplicable plot devices that let down a film that otherwise seems to take itself very seriously. Things that weakened the story: 1) Main character finds address of missing person by calling a telephone company, insinuating the call centre rep is assuming the main character is someone else. This would never happen due to Data Protection. 2) No obstacles for the main character to overcome; whatever information he wanted he could get very easily. Hard to believe since considering the type of people involved. 3) Bad guy has no security measures protecting his very expensive home and contents, allowing main character to break by smashing a window. Highly unlikely.Ultimately, they film parodied James Bond towards the end with the scenarios becoming more & more ridiculous to the point where the very serious subject matter was trivialised and pushed aside in favour of Bond-esquire capture & escape sequences.Dull, uninspired, unemotional & lacking in atmosphere.

It is interesting that "8MM," with a plot so similar, came out the same year. I found this film more interesting and believable and far less dark and stomach-turning. It is well-filmed and acted with some interesting locations. The tension is well-metered. I enjoyed the colorfulness of the filming. The cosmopolitan/European flavor lends a great deal. I enjoyed the music as well. I would see this film again with a friend.

Auteuil is magnificent as the French loner who has somehow become a lost soul among the shadows of London's West End. The private detective, who discovers the cracks in his own life though an investigation that leads him through the seedy underworld of the child prostitution trade, takes us through the shoking stages of his discovery with much suspense. One of the best modern detective stories to have been filmed in London for many years and a film that deserves much better attention than it got when first released.