One thing you can be sure of with Frank Mancuso is authenticity. An ex-cop himself, he co-wrote 36 Quai des Orfevres with another ex-cop, Olivier Marchal (who also directed) and based it on incidents in his own time on the force. This time around he has adapted an American novel by Robert Bloch but his movie is no worse for that. It's arguably more psychological thriller than pure policier but manages to retain its grip throughout. In a nutshell a cop's young daughter is killed and a suspect arrested, tried and imprisoned and this, as they say, is where the story really starts; with the prisoner - Monty Clift lookalike Laurent Lucas - initiating a correspondence from his cell with the father of the murdered girl, a correspondence he chooses to keep secret from his wife. Justice, albeit rough justice, prevails in the end but as always in life nobody really wins. Definitely worth seeing.
Review of Counter Investigation
