FRANÇOIS DAMIENS IN PLAYING DEAD

Contrivance

Jean-Paul Salomé's Playing Dead/Je fais le mort is a mildly entertaining but tonally uneven comedy-mystery that follows the familiar detective story device of playing musical chairs with suspects, winding up with one of the least likely ones. In the process Playing Dead piles on its wealth of scenes and plot twists that eventually turn mechanical.

The protagonist, failing actor Jean Renaut (François Damiens), is inconsistently conceived, morphing too easily from goofy loser to ace amateur detective. What is consistent is Renaut's need to interfere in the direction of his scenes, a trait that loses him a regular paycheck when he's fired at the outset from a TV cop series. Out of work and with bills to pay, he accepts a related job that, however, is only marginally "acting." He goes to the ski resort of Megève to play the victims for a police restaging of a multiple murder. Here, Renault's self destructive interference leads him to play detective when he's only mean to play victim.

Renault clashes/flirts with the "juge d'instruction" in charge, Noémie Desfontaines (Géraldine Nakache), again taking over and annoying her with his own theories about how the action went down in each murder. Of course he will turn out to be the one who is right, not her or local police lieutenant Lamy (Lucien Jean-Baptiste), winning Noémie's admiration and affection and leading to a collaboration with local innkeeper Madame Jacky (Anne Le Ny). None of this is remotely believable, and it started to feel like Damiens was becoming too much like his character -- a once promising newcomer (who a César as such early on) who's now just a hack going through the motions.

Energetic Belgian-French character actor Daniens is known for secondary roles in OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (2006), Heartbreaker (2010) and Delicacy (2011). He's in three films of the 2014 version of Lincoln Center's Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, the other two being the detective in Serge Bozon's oddbally police procedural Tip Top and the father of Sara Forestier in Katell Quillévéré's excellent crime-love melodrama Suzanne.

Jean-Paul Salomé has eight features listed on Allociné, the best received critically (3.4 press rating) being his 2008 Les Femmes de l'ombres/Female Agents, with Sophie Marceau and Julie Depardieu. He has shown a penchant for crime-mystery, with stabs at Belfagor and Arsene Lupin, but most of his films have not shown in the US or done well critically in France. The Paris-Match critic felt Playing Dead shows Salomé does better, as here, with a low-keyed low-budget film than "at the head of a superproduction." 11 December 2013 French release. A so-so Allociné press rating: 2.9. Screened for this review as part of the 6-16 March 2014 Unifrance-Film Society of Lincoln Center series Rendez-Vous with French Cinema. Public showings of the film:
Saturday, March 8, 6:00pm – BAM; Saturday, March 8, 9:00pm – WRT; Sunday, March 9, 3:15pm – IFC; Friday, March 14, 1:00pm - EBM
In Person: Jean-Paul Salomé

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©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.