"F" is for Future, French and Fighting

I have seen the future and it looks like… a razor commercial.  In fact, I expected a sleek, multi-bladed Gillette to rocket through Chrysalis at any time while I was watching it. The French sci-fi film (on DVD May 12 from Anchor Bay ) presents one of my least favourite movie-future aesthetics: cold, clean and colourless. Fluorescent lights, plenty of stainless steel, concrete, technological thingies that are gray or black – it’s the sort of look evident in The Matrix, Minority Report, A.I. and any other film where rainbows, Skittles and Technicolour Dreamcoats seem to have been outlawed (for the record, I’m all for getting rid of that last one). It’s like society collectively decided, “Who the hell needs colour and ornamentation when we’ve got all these bad ass holograms – boo-ya!”

That said, the mono-chromatic Ikea showroom look does fit the dour, clinical world of first-time feature director Julien Lecrercq’s futuristic mix of Eyes Without a Face and Minority Report, with a touch of A Clockwork Orange. Just as joyless (or joie de vivre-less, as the film takes place in Paris) and monochromatic is police officer David Hoffman (Albert Dupontel), a guy whose oppressively sullen demeanour stems from the fact that he was unable to save his love and fellow officer during a bust gone wrong. She was stabbed and dumped in the murky water of a sewer tunnel, and he dove in after her but was too late to save her from drowning.

Now, David drifts through the days, beating himself up (he practices holding his breath in the bathtub just in case he may be faced with a similar situation – you can bet the skill comes in very handy later), working out (Dupontel is a buff dude) and hunting the murderer – a shady underworld type who’s been snatching people off the street, named Nicolov (Alain Figlarz). David is grudgingly aided by his new partner Marie (Marie Guillard), who seems suspiciously over her head.

Meanwhile, a prestigious doctor is helping her daughter recover from a horrible car accident that apparently required much plastic surgery and a new procedure to re-implant lost memories, via a Clockwork Orange-like machine, that also kinda look like one of those lame virtual reality helmets from the ‘90s. The storylines slowly merge, and it’s little surprise that some mad science is afoot.

As far as sci-fi goodies go, there are neat gadgets (notably the batons the police carry that project holograms and can verify identity by reading retinas); there’s a technological threat (we’re reminded what evil things could happen if that memory machine got in the wrong hands); and there’s a prescient subtext (if not always clear) about identity in a surveillance society. (You can see the trailer for Chrysalis here, by the way.)

Lecrercq, like many first-time feature directors, tries hard to impress. There’s that slick, if overly T.V. commercial-looking, palette; some fancy, if unnecessary, shots, including one that moves through the floors of the clinic as it follows an elevator; and he goes all out with some highly choreographed fight scenes. Well, make that over-choreographed fight scenes. The movie presents a cohesive world, except when Dupontel is mixing it up with Figlarz – then it turns into a very stage-y martial arts demonstration. Figlarz is a stunt guy with a credit on The Bourne Identity, which could explain why the fights in that film are edited into oblivion; they need to be in order to look real.

It’s not a deal breaker if you’re looking for a decent sci-fi renter, but, like so much of the Chrysalis, it’s a smidge too slick and empty. Gentlemen, may I suggest something a little less razor commercial-like, and a little more fun and Parisian next time, like perhaps two mimes on bicycles jousting with baguettes?

That could totally happen in the future.

-Dave Alexander