Cryptic is as good a word as any to describe this. If red herrings are your thing then you've come to the right place. Jerome Salle takes a leaf out of Patrice Leconte's book and starts on a pair of feminine feet but unlike Sandrine Bonnaire in Leconte's movie, who wore granny shoes, these are stylish high heels. In another departure Salle keeps us waiting to see the woman in question approximately three or four times as long as Leconte, who revealed Bonnaire in less than one minute screen time. Salle teases us in several ways; showing a female hand - her back is to us - selecting and lighting a cigarette in close up, then more feet as she walks the length of a platform before finally boarding a train and walking past several empty seats to select a place opposite Yvan Attal - whom we might be forgiven for assuming is the eponymous Zimmer - and even then her eyes are hidden behind dark glasses. Friend Zimmer is by all accounts a criminal genius wanted far and wide by both sides of the law. Attal is strangely subdued this time around with little or none of the macho arrogance of his small-time crook in 'Bon Voyage' and Sophie Marceau is suitably enigmatic as well she might be given the role she's been handed. Ultimately this is one you watch for the acting rather than the plot which could conceal itself behind a spiral staircase.
Review of Anthony Zimmer
