The Lost Son (1999)

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Daniel Auteuil steps out from his native French and is immediately swimming against the tide in this film noire set inexplicably in England but with mostly foreign actors. I like Auteuil, when he's doing French movies but here his accent and rather high voice just sets the mood off. I guessed in the second half hour who the bad guy was, so it was just a question of when our hero would, but not before traveling to Mexico to watch Bruce Greenwood strangle a German accent in a performance I am sure he regrets. With French writers and a British Director what could go right? It's not a bad movie just a movie with the wrong actors in the wrong setting.

I just watched this film on DVD, and sought it out because I love Daniel Auteil's acting.This film felt very French to me in its cinematography and overall styling, although largely London based, and shot mainly in English. The acting throughout was excellent, perhaps with the exception of Ciaran Hinds' Brazilian/American/Irish accent! Ciaran plays the lost son's brother in law, who brings Lombard, the French private detective living in London, in to try to solve the case of the disappearance.The film does deal with a very sensitive subject, but I felt it did so sensitively, showing how an empire can be brought down by one man, if he feels strongly enough to sacrifice everything he has.There are some very violent scenes, and they are wholly central to the script, highlighting how low Lombard's character, is brought by his passion and anger at what horrors he has uncovered in a paedophile ring, involved in the disappearance of the lost son. Lombard makes moral decisions throughout the film that are understandable and I feel that this is a very powerful film.The late Katrin Cartlidge puts in a very strong performance, supporting Lombard's character in his ultimate revenge plot. Lombard's "tart with a heart" best friend, Marianne Denicourt, is excellent in a stunning bitter-sweet role, and Billie Whitelaw is fabulous as the stern, businesslike matriarch, whose lost son is being sought by Lombard, and who also comes to terms with tragic loss, as Lombard also must. Auteuil, as always, is credible, beautiful and gives a very moving performance. Although it took me a few minutes to get over his English "voice"!In my opinion, this must be one of the best international, cross-over, thrillers in recent years.

Saw this film late night on cable. The story really draws you in. Enjoyable tense drama with a disturbing subject matter. Daniel Auteuil does a very believable job as the private investigator caught up in a case deeper and darker than he expected. A tad predictable at the end but over all a good film.

Taking a subject as controversial as paedophilia and attempting to build a routine detective story around it is prone to failure, not least because it is very easy to appear sensational and exploitative. Having said that 'The Lost Son' doesn't fall down on that count, but instead disappoints because it isn't bold enough. For two thirds of the film we have the basis of a great detective story, which only falters when the director feels the need to throw in a few heroics, and sentimentalities. When Lombard delivers the saved children, by truck, into the arms of the priest, he's almost saint-like - and it's just a bit too trite. I was also letdown by the 'twist' ending, which was totally expected. Shot mostly on location in London, the film captures the claustrophobia and loneliness of Lombard's existence since the death of his wife and child, the catalyst for his own need to run away. Moving the action to Mexico destroys the sense of isolation and spoils the flow of the film immensely. Auteil's performance as the hard-bitten private investigator veers away from cliche because you really can believe in this man's story. He himself is a 'lost son', searching for some meaning to exorcise his own demons, and sorting out other people's problems while trying to bury his own. It is telling that his only real friend is a prostitute, and his life tends to revolve around those close to the 'business' he so ardently abhors.'The Lost Son' isn't an easy film to watch, and doesn't deliver on all it promises, with a tendency to favour flashiness over a fleshed out story. But worth seeing, nonetheless.