Restless - Way Better than Expected Thriller Movie with Strong Dark Comedy Element

Last night I opted to watch this French movie on Netflix as other new releases were either ones that did not really appeal to me or series that require concentration. It intrigued me as the premise looked interesting. Now let us get right to it then. 

Brief Synopsis

Lt. Thomas Blin (Franck Gastambide - Taxi 5 etc) was a cop who was having the worst night of his life when he was involved in an accident while trying to be in the police station at the same time as attending to his mother's casket closing. To avoid having repercussions, he tried to cover up the accident.

Unfortunately though, he started to get threats from a mysterious person on his cover up. 

So what would happen to Thomas and how would the story conclude? You can find them all in this movie.

End of Brief Synopsis

Now this was a pleasant surprise. As I said above, I decided to watch this movie as it seemed to be the most intriguing one. However, it was unexpectedly truly entertaining. The first half of the movie was fast paced and intensely fun watching Thomas' extreme stunts. His character was not supposed to be someone you should root for, but you could not help yourself and ended up supporting him. 

The second half of the movie though, the tone gradually changed from light and a bit fun to serious and more suspenseful, especially with the appearance of the person threatening Thomas. And the intensity was increased through out the rest of the film. Though it did not have a spectacular climax but the ending was really satisfying for me. 

The movie would not have been entertaining had it not been for the performance of Franck Gastambide who really suit this character. I have only seen him once in that movie Taxi 5 which was the kind of hilarious absurd action comedy type, so I guess he was already experienced in performing a bit of comedic role. He was supported by other cast that included Michaël Abiteboul as Thomas' partner Marc, Jemima West (The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones etc) as Thomas' sister Agathe, Tracy Gotoas as detective in training Naomi, Serge Hazanavicius as Commissaire Vaubour and Simon Abkarian (Casino Royale etc) as Narcotics division head Marelli.

For a movie that has duration of 95 minutes (which did not have any mid or post end credit scene), this one was certainly time well spent. Btw, from the opening scenes of the film which has original title of Sans Répit (literally meaning Without Letting Up), I noticed some French sentences that has the word "adaptation". Apparently this movie was indeed adapted from 2014 South Korean film titled A Hard Day directed by Kim Seong-Hun which was critically acclaimed and won few awards. I could not make comparison with the film as I have not seen it, but this made me even more in awe of the quality of South Korean productions.

So if you are interested in having some fun of a cop who was having literally a hard day with a bit of dark comedy and curiosity of how it would end, then you should be entertained by this movie. I certainly was.

Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars