Art-house patrons who made the French thriller Tell No One a specialized hit three years ago won’t want to miss Point Blank, another breathless import about an ordinary man whose wife is taken from him. Here, it’s nurse’s aide Samuel Pierret (Gilles Lellouche), whose kindly act of preventing a patient, a hood named Hugo Sartet (Roschdy Zem), from being murdered places him in a deadly situation: He must somehow help Hugo escape from the hospital or his kidnapped — and pregnant — wife Nadia (Elena Anaya) gets whacked. What follows is a twisty tale involving warring criminal factions, cops both good and bad, one totally unexpected rubout, a developing bond between Samuel and Hugo, and, of course, some good ol’ fashioned last-minute escapes and last-second rescues. Point Blank doesn’t break any new ground, but neither does it fumble its genre requirements. It’s worth a shot.
This article appears in Aug 30 – Sep 5, 2011.
