The Young Lieutenant

2005

1h 54m

Crime

Drama

List

78%

55 Reviews

Tomatometer

64%

1,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

A French policewoman (Nathalie Baye) and a rookie (Jalil Lespert) investigate the murder of a homeless Polish man (Xavier Beauvois).

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Critics Consensus

A gritty, languidly paced crime drama that blends old-fashioned ambiance with modern cynicism.

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David Germain

Associated Press

A quiet powerhouse of a film, an implacable, uncompromising French police drama, both old-fashioned and modern, that underlines the reasons impeccably made crime stories do so well on-screen.

Mar 16, 2007

Full Review

Stephen Hunter

Washington Post

Le Petit Lieutenant shows how good French movies can be when they stay French and don't try to go international.

Feb 8, 2007

Full Review

Leighton Walter Kille

Boston Globe

... you can sense Baye's struggling within the limits imposed on her.

Rated: 2.5/4

Jan 26, 2007

Full Review

Cole Smithey

ColeSmithey.com

The rarely done genre of the French policier is alive and well in director Xavier Beauvois' dynamic movie

Rated: B+

Apr 25, 2009

Full Review

Louis Proyect

rec.arts.movies.reviews

French version of upscale cop shows like NYPD Blue or The Wire.

Jun 8, 2007

Full Review

Jeremy C. Fox

Pajiba

Lieutenant is a sly act of provocation, a repudiation of American filmmaking technique and of near-universal attitudes about cinematic violence.

May 7, 2007

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Audience Member

Solid police drama set in Paris. Natalie Baye gives a nuanced performance and the other actors keep up with her, making this movie an unvarnished look at the lives of cops in the city.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/19/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Intéressant. Je crois qu'on a toutefois peut-être un peu trop exploité le domaine de l'intrigue policière, alors qu'on aurait peut-être du forcé sur le côté sentimental de la chose. Beauvois a tenté de se rattraper avec la fin du film (30 dernières secondes de toute beauté...) mais ça n'a pas suffit pour exprimer toute la misère du monde ressentie par ce petit lieutenant...

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/26/23

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Audience Member

Brilliant flic drama done in cinema verite style. Great acting, script, neo-realist feel.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/26/23

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Audience Member

Nathalie Baye at her best in a roll of police officer showing physical and emotional exhaustion, the poison that works its way inside, the meaninglessness of trying to hold back the tide of crime and the impossibility of suppressing human nature at its ugliest.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/01/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Really really boring. I suppose that's the whole point of the movie though to get an inside look of what it's really like to be a cop and show that it's not all fun and games. I couldn't sit through more than 21 minutes of this thing so I should probably watch the whole thing before writing about it but i'm pretty sure that if the synopsis for the movie was a little more interesting then the rest of the movie would be too. But for me it wasn't.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/22/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Le quotidien d'un jeune flic normand qui rÃªve de venir vivre la grande vie de flic de la PJ sur le terrain Ã Paris, parce qu'au Havre (oÃ¹ sa femme est toujours institutrice) "va y avoir qu'un meurtre par an et Ã§a sera un mec bourrÃ© Ã la sortie d'une boite". Pas parmi les premiers de sa promo, il n'en est pas moins zÃ©lÃ© et plein de certitudes sur tout. Il devient vite la mascotte de l'Ã©quipe et trÃ©pigne d'impatience de voir son premier cadavre. Pour une fois, pas de super flic Ã la Olivier Marchal (dont j'aime bien le cinÃ©ma aussi mais qui se veut rÃ©solument tournÃ© vers le spectacle), on est plus proche de la sÃ©rie "PJ" de France 2 (ceci n'est pas une insulte) que des bad boys de "Braquo" : des SDF balancÃ©s dans la Seine, le travail laborieux de l'investigation de terrain (planque, enquÃªte de voisinage, auditions oÃ¹ la barriÃ¨re de la langue vient poser problÃ¨me), les cicatrices laissÃ©es par le passÃ©, la cellule familiale recrÃ©Ã©e au sein de l'Ã©quipe, les problÃ¨mes familiaux... Du flic humain, en veux-tu ? En voilÃ . Jalil Lespert se dÃ©brouille pas trop mal et est assez crÃ©dible en jeune flic zÃ©lÃ© et toujours ravi de ce qui lui arrive. Dommage qu'on ne puisse pas en dire autant de Nathalie Baye. J'ai passÃ© le film Ã Ãªtre surpris que ses collÃ¨gues la tutoient tant elle est pÃ¨te-sec et distante. Elle joue Ã cotÃ© de la plaque, son alcoolisme sonne faux, tout comme les raisons qui l'ont entrainÃ© au fond. Assez difficile de dire ce qui me reste de ce "petit lieutenant". Assez convaincu par le quotidien de l'Ã©quipe, par leurs rapports entre eux, par l'angÃ©lisme de Lespert, moins par l'histoire de Nathalie Baye. Ceci dit, le regard sur la police (ni saints, ni salauds) a le mÃ©rite d'Ãªtre original et le parti pris rÃ©aliste fonctionne pas trop mal.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/26/23

Full Review

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Xavier Beauvois

Director

Nathalie Baye

Commandant Caroline Vaudieu

Jalil Lespert

Antoine Derouère

Roschdy Zem

Solo

Antoine Chappey

Louis Mallet

Jacques Perrin

Le juge Serge Clermont

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Synopsis

A French policewoman (Nathalie Baye) and a rookie (Jalil Lespert) investigate the murder of a homeless Polish man (Xavier Beauvois).

Director: Xavier Beauvois
Screenwriter: Xavier Beauvois, Guillaume Bréaud, Cédric Anger, Jean-Éric Troubat
Production Co: Why Not Productions
Genre: Crime, Drama
Original Language: French (France)
Release Date (Streaming): Feb 18, 2010
Runtime: 1h 54m
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital

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