La clef

Jumping constantly between 2 time periods (1975 and 2007) and at least 3 different groups of characters, "The Key" is mainly an exercise in narrative complexity that does not satisfy very much emotionally. Admittedly there are some very suspenseful and well-done moments (the throat stabbing and the subsequent escape attempt), but in trying to interconnect all the different time periods and story lines, the screenwriters are forced to use a few too many coincidences, most notably at the end, when somehow almost every character ends up at the same hospital at the same time (also, I'm still not sure if the hero gets in so much trouble because he is mistaken for a thief by drug runners, or because of his father's criminal past, or both). The cast is good as usual for a French movie, but the lovely Marie Gillain unfortunately gets stuck with the poorly written character of the obnoxiously nagging wife. All in all, "Le Clef" is an interesting but forgettable experiment. **1/2 out of 4.