"Le Serpent" begins as an exciting action-packed thriller ,and its first hour ,although rather derivative ,holds the viewer spellbound .The performances are quite good ,particularly Yvan Attal as a "bad-wisher" friend and a cast again type Pierre Richard in an underwritten part.
"Revenge is a dish best eaten cold" could be another title for "Le Serpent" ( a tattoo on the fiend's back)
Half way through we learn why this old pal doesn't want his old school friend any good.And things begin to deteriorate beyond that point.There's a very unpleasant side:being a punching bag is the worst thing that can happen to a boy (or a girl) at school.People who did not experiment such a thing can't relate to that.Vincent had lost his dad,his mother could not stand her only son's situation.Even if they did not do it on purpose ,all those (probably rich kids) adolescents were responsible for the horrible thing that happened to their unfortunate mate.And Plender revealed himself a coward.
The second half sheds new light on Plender:he has actually remained a coward,incapable of fighting without a lawyer (it's the lawyer who takes the chances) or an army of cops (and how dumb these cops must be not to have found the prisoners!).
This apparently neuter thriller is in fact the triumph of the establishment which refuses a misfit his place in the sun: the adolescent is forced to give up his studies whereas his torturers will live a protected bourgeois life .The moral is very simplistic and the last picture is a stupid happy end ,which explains why the cops had to be so stupid.
"Revenge is a dish best eaten cold" could be another title for "Le Serpent" ( a tattoo on the fiend's back)
Half way through we learn why this old pal doesn't want his old school friend any good.And things begin to deteriorate beyond that point.There's a very unpleasant side:being a punching bag is the worst thing that can happen to a boy (or a girl) at school.People who did not experiment such a thing can't relate to that.Vincent had lost his dad,his mother could not stand her only son's situation.Even if they did not do it on purpose ,all those (probably rich kids) adolescents were responsible for the horrible thing that happened to their unfortunate mate.And Plender revealed himself a coward.
The second half sheds new light on Plender:he has actually remained a coward,incapable of fighting without a lawyer (it's the lawyer who takes the chances) or an army of cops (and how dumb these cops must be not to have found the prisoners!).
This apparently neuter thriller is in fact the triumph of the establishment which refuses a misfit his place in the sun: the adolescent is forced to give up his studies whereas his torturers will live a protected bourgeois life .The moral is very simplistic and the last picture is a stupid happy end ,which explains why the cops had to be so stupid.