Restless is the French remake of the 2014 South Korean film A Hard Day. In reading the plot summary it looks like director Régis Blondeau pretty much reproduced the same plot and characters transposed in this case to France.
Our "hero" is Thomas (Franck Gastambide), a corrupt police detective who we gradually come to sympathize with despite a significant number of flaws. The hapless but somehow charming Thomas manages to consistently evade the long arm of the law throughout the narrative despite his many fax paus including engaging in illegal drug dealing (he keeps a load of drug money inside his locker).
Restless begins as a black comedy. Thomas leaves his own mother's funeral to return to his precinct where a squad of internal affairs officers are about to blow the lid off his shady operation. Fortunately his best friend and fellow officer Marc (Michael Abitebol) along with his fiancée, officer-in-training Naomi (Tracy Goatas) flush all the drug proceeds down the toilet saving Thomas from ruin.
On the way back to the precinct while driving his car, Thomas hits a man and kills him who appears out of nowhere on the side of the road. The black comedy aspect becomes even more bizarre when Thomas returns to the funeral home and places the dead body inside his mother's casket. There's even more crazy goings on when the dead man's cell phone begins ringing at the mother's funeral.
The story then morphs into a mystery thriller when Thomas suddenly gets a call from an unknown man who seems to be aware that the beleaguered detective was responsible for killing the man with his vehicle and then burying the body in the casket.
As it turns out the mysterious man is the psychopathic Chief of Narcotics Marelli (Simon Abkarian) who orders Thomas to retrieve a key which is inside the body of the man whom Thomas killed. The dead man was a drug partner of Marelli whom he killed after double crossing Marelli over drug proceeds.
Now this is the only part of the script where I had trouble understanding what really was going on. If Marelli wants to get his hands on that special key, why doesn't he kill the partner where he can easily retrieve it? Instead he shoots the man who gets away long enough to be struck by Thomas' car. When Thomas becomes involved, that complicates things for Marelli significantly.
Marelli proves to be the monster of the piece and ends up killing Thomas' buddy Marc by arranging for a giant storage container to fall on his car while he's inside of it. By now we are no longer in black comedy territory.
The final confrontation between Thomas and Marelli manages to keep you on the edge of your seat with a denouement highlighting the hero's redemption (after resigning from the force and not prosecuted by governmental authorities who wish to avoid a scandal), Thomas claims all of Morelli's drug loot saving both his daughter and sister in the process.
I enjoyed Restless impressed by all the twists and turns in the plot. I'm not sure the circumstances surrounding the break into the Second Act (when the drug dealer is killed) worked completely. Nonetheless the pacing is terrific along with the acting which will keep you engrossed throughout.
Our "hero" is Thomas (Franck Gastambide), a corrupt police detective who we gradually come to sympathize with despite a significant number of flaws. The hapless but somehow charming Thomas manages to consistently evade the long arm of the law throughout the narrative despite his many fax paus including engaging in illegal drug dealing (he keeps a load of drug money inside his locker).
Restless begins as a black comedy. Thomas leaves his own mother's funeral to return to his precinct where a squad of internal affairs officers are about to blow the lid off his shady operation. Fortunately his best friend and fellow officer Marc (Michael Abitebol) along with his fiancée, officer-in-training Naomi (Tracy Goatas) flush all the drug proceeds down the toilet saving Thomas from ruin.
On the way back to the precinct while driving his car, Thomas hits a man and kills him who appears out of nowhere on the side of the road. The black comedy aspect becomes even more bizarre when Thomas returns to the funeral home and places the dead body inside his mother's casket. There's even more crazy goings on when the dead man's cell phone begins ringing at the mother's funeral.
The story then morphs into a mystery thriller when Thomas suddenly gets a call from an unknown man who seems to be aware that the beleaguered detective was responsible for killing the man with his vehicle and then burying the body in the casket.
As it turns out the mysterious man is the psychopathic Chief of Narcotics Marelli (Simon Abkarian) who orders Thomas to retrieve a key which is inside the body of the man whom Thomas killed. The dead man was a drug partner of Marelli whom he killed after double crossing Marelli over drug proceeds.
Now this is the only part of the script where I had trouble understanding what really was going on. If Marelli wants to get his hands on that special key, why doesn't he kill the partner where he can easily retrieve it? Instead he shoots the man who gets away long enough to be struck by Thomas' car. When Thomas becomes involved, that complicates things for Marelli significantly.
Marelli proves to be the monster of the piece and ends up killing Thomas' buddy Marc by arranging for a giant storage container to fall on his car while he's inside of it. By now we are no longer in black comedy territory.
The final confrontation between Thomas and Marelli manages to keep you on the edge of your seat with a denouement highlighting the hero's redemption (after resigning from the force and not prosecuted by governmental authorities who wish to avoid a scandal), Thomas claims all of Morelli's drug loot saving both his daughter and sister in the process.
I enjoyed Restless impressed by all the twists and turns in the plot. I'm not sure the circumstances surrounding the break into the Second Act (when the drug dealer is killed) worked completely. Nonetheless the pacing is terrific along with the acting which will keep you engrossed throughout.