Asylum (2008) Reviews

• The chain

  dbdumonteil2009-07-17

  With such a low rating and no comment,who will watch this excellent thriller which forms a sharp contrast to the average level of the French so called film noir of the era? The first third may seem trite and with its subjects of Russian roulette or "the gays who would enjoy smoking cigars(?)" ,it could lead the director in Tarantino territory.Things go better with the "test" you've got to pass to be part of the gang ;there's a lot of black humor in the scene in which the hero "teaches" a young recruit (a head's relative)how to hold up a bank. But the movie really takes off when the young hero "ends up tied to a tree like a dog in a forest where there 's nobody miles around";or almost nobody should I write.With very restricted means,the film becomes closer to some of HItchcock's enclosed space movies,such works as "rope" or "lifeboat" .To write more would be a spoiler.If you find the final unexpected twist far-fetched (and it is in a way),remember the plane . The gangsters scenes which are actually a long flashback are badly introduced with pretentious pictures in the "present",but apart from this,this is an unfairly overlooked thriller.

  More