The Ax (2005)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Highly Overrated But Still Good

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

People who characterize this film as a comedy obviously haven't got it. The comic element is just a thin surface. This is a tragic story and a very strong political statement. Obviously Bruno's decisions and actions are absurd, but his circumstances are not. The movie offers an incisive look at the dark reality of chronic unemployment. Corporate greed leads to story after story after story of desperation. Westlake and Gavras know that in order to pass the message you have to lighten up the atmosphere (a la Truman Show), or else the viewer won't sit the whole movie. In order to appreciate the film you have to marginalize the main plot element (the murder story) and concentrate on all the subplots.

I haven't read the novel by Donald E. Westlake on which this movie is based but I have read several of his works and til now I never had him pegged as a plagiarist but here he's at it twice over; firstly he lifts a title, Ax, already used by Ed McBain in one of his 87th Precinct novels and then the plot itself is pure Richard The Third, or - and new readers start here - the one about the guy who kills everybody standing between him and the throne. In this case the throne is just a middle management job at Arcadia, a paper manufacturer and it was a job that Jose Garcia HAD til he was laid off. Like a lot of people in similar circumstances - he is after all a chemist as opposed to a common or garden administrator - he figures it's only a matter of time til he lucks into another job but after three years of no money, a wife, Karin Viard, and two kids to support and a house to keep up he figures the only way through the wood is, to paraphrase Richard Crookback, 'hack my way out with a bloody axe. This is where Costa-Gavros lost me; it may be he was aiming at comedy and/or satire but if he was he missed by a mile. I mean this guy kills his rivals in broad daylight; he uses his own car which SOMEBODY must have seen, his own gun, time after time even on one occasion accidentally killing a neighbour who had already seen him on a previous abortive attempt on the guy in question and now accosted him. Don't they watch CSI Miami in France? I mean have they ever heard of forensic evidence? This guy just kills and kills and walks, or rather drives away. There's even a weird sequence when he breaks into the home of the head honcho of Arcadia (Olivier Gourmet) who braces him. Gourmet is slightly drunk however and winds up entertaining Garcia before passing out. Garcia's idea of fun is to turn on the gas and leave the comatose Gourmet to inhale it; as luck would have it Gourmet comes to, fails to notice the gas and lights a cigarette, end of one head honcho. Garcia I can take or leave and his performance does nothing to change my mind but I am partial to Karin Viard who is wasted here yet does what she can to salvage a bad joke. 3 stars.

*** May contain some spoilers ***"Le Couperet", the last Costa-Gavras, talks about the insanity provoked in a middle-age manager after the loss of his very specialized job in a company that rearranged its stuff aboard by economic convenience. The plot, very well adapted from the novel "The Ax", by Donald E. Westlake, is itself a denunciation of what is happening in our capitalist and liberal system were people hardly conserve their employ and, once fired, they can reinsert themselves even more hardly into the system. Costa-Gavras remarks all throughout the movie the concept of consummation nowadays and how this attitude becomes a growing problem to maintain the status of our style-life.I went to the theater foreseeing a remake of "Falling Down" (Schumacher, 1993), where a lonely man becomes crazy after been fired and starts to kill people indiscriminately into the crowd. And I was wrong. Machiavellian Bruno (José García), the depressed and introspected main character, reacts in a peculiar way by selecting extremely well their preys -their job's rivals. Moreover, murders occur in isolated places. In the meantime his loving wife (Karim Viard) works outside and tries to maintain the marriage equilibrium and the family integrity. Both actors are GREAT!The movie has a really great rhythm from the beginning to the end. A cute melange of dramatic and hilarious situations spices the entire movie, as well as an intelligent use of the voice-off to look into somebody's head decided to kill someone else.Direction simply excels. Actors are credible and familiar. The couple García-Viard works finely and perfectly in tuning. That's why face to face scenes between García and Viard or with the victims are of such efficiency that one feels into the place. Dialogs sound naturally unforced. Supporting actors dance very well synchronized with mains ones. Photography is clean, vivid, luminous contrasting with the internal dark mood of Bruno. Camera scans little villages in the north of France and Belgium, and pierces in houses and surrounds of middle-class people. Music is very discreet and works mainly as an insinuation of Bruno's moods than a heavy score omnipresent.In summary: a very solid Costa-Gavras, sadly current and confirming that the director has not said his last word yet (and fortunately!). I recommend this movie to those that love the soul of a good director reacting efficiently on the actor's work, and the landscapes of social denunciation painted on canvas made of present.9/10

I saw this Costa-Gavras movie in a theater. During 2 hours, you follow a man who went crazy because, after his lay off he is not able to find another place as a chemist in the paper industry. Since he cannot think of doing another job, since every interview for a job ends with a meaningful "we'll call you", he decides that the only way to get back his job is "simply" to kill his competitors.My first impression was that the movie is too long and many scenes are in fact boring, and the story is not interesting enough or complex enough to make a movie by itself. The idea that, in our modern society, many people define themselves by their job (and not by what they achieve in other fields, their family life for instance), is probably an interesting theme. In his movie however, I cannot tell if the director Costa-Gavras opted for a comedy or a drama about a serial killer. Some scenes are somewhat funny, but they are too scarce. You mainly see the main character trying to get rid of potential rivals in various ways, and the whole is neither credible enough, nor burlesque enough, nor breathtaking enough. Maybe we'll get a better movie if you keep it short, concise and cut all the boring scenes.If you want a good drama which is also a good social satire from France, pick any of the Chabrol's. If you're for a good comedy with a corporate background, I would suggest "The Closet" ("Le placard") by Francis Weber.One good thing about "Le couperet" however, the acting is very good and allows the movie not to fall apart. (But I prefer José Garcia when he is directed in a more funny way).