I suppose I'm hypocritical in that I would happily watch a porn film, but unnecessary sex scenes and nudity in more mainstream movies annoy me.The 'it was central to the plot' argument hardly ever holds up. But here it does. By recent standards, where it seems almost anything can be shown, the sex scenes in Complices are by no means explicit, but nonetheless the situations are still quite shocking.Without those scenes though, there's no film. We needed to see what went on between Vincent, Rebecca and the others, unpleasant as it may have seemed to us.My only gripe is that Rebecca's willingness to turn to the dark side seemed a bit sudden, although I understand her motivation.A sad but gripping love story, wonderfully acted and cleverly told.

The body of a young man is found floating on a river near Lyon. Herve and Karine, a team of the local police detectives, arrive at the scene. It is not clear to them as to what caused his death. They immediately begin their investigation. At the same time, another narrative, involving Vincent, the victim of the crime, is shown paralleling it to the work the police are trying to conduct.Vincent, it turns out, is a male hustler. He meets his male costumers through a porn site on the web. His encounters are not cheap, two hundred Euros a session. His clients tend to be men of a certain age, wanting to engage the good looking Vincent and make him the center of their fantasies. Vincent operates out of hotel rooms, mainly. He goes to 'cybercafes' to chat with prospective 'johns'. One day he meets Rebecca, a girl that appears to be out of his league. In a bold move, she gives him her phone. This encounter will have a profound effect on their relationship and in the crime at the heart of the story.In contrast with the bond that Vincent and Rebecca form, there is the one involving the detective team of Herve and Karine. Even though there is no hint there is anything but a good working relationship between them, both are seen sharing moments playing table tennis, or even using the communal showers of their police precinct, or just plain relaxing with a meal. Vincent and Rebecca begin a torrid love affair at his trailer park-like mobile home. Vincent has lied to her about his profession, but it does not take long for her to find out what he really does as Karine follows Vincent to one of the hotels where he has just had a sexual encounter with a man. It will not take too long for Vincent to convince Karine to participate with him in other sexual acts that will end in tragedy.Director Frederic Mermoud cleverly interlaces the actual investigation of the murder being investigated with the actual depiction of what really happened and how it led to the horrible crime in the story. In fact, Mr. Mermoud, who co-wrote the screenplay with Pascal Arnold, has a surprise for the audience that might not be too realistic in the viewer's eyes in the way he handles Rebecca's involvement in Vincent's death. What the director achieved was first rate all around acting in a film that involves the viewer from the start. Gilbert Malki appears as Herve, the detective in the story. He was equally matched by Emmanuelle Devos who gives an understated performance as Karine. Cyris Descours is also terrific as Vincent, and Nina Meurisse makes the best out of her Rebecca the young woman that gets involved with a man out of her league to terrible consequences. Beautifully photographed by Thomas Hardmeier, and with a music score by Gregorie Hetzel, the film showcases a brand new talent, Frederic Mermoud, whose next film will be eagerly awaited.

The opening sequence of "Accomplices", with a body floating down a river, will almost certainly have a strong resonance for those who remember "Twin Peaks". In this case the waterlogged corpse is that of a rootless young man, Vincent, rather than the beautiful homecoming queen Laura Palmer - and the subsequent murder inquiry unveils the hidden decadence of the French city of Lyons, rather than that of a small town in the Pacific Northwest. The two detectives assigned to the case are Herve and Karine, who enjoy a complex friendship, coupled with an efficient work relationship. Their initial fact-finding in Lyons reveals an additional echo from David Lynch's landmark TV series - Vincent, like Laura, had been prostituting himself. As Herve and Karine probe into Vincent's complicated life - as well as their own - the film cuts back and forth between the murder investigation and the young hustler's various pursuits in the weeks prior to his death. They discover that the rent-boy murder victim was bi-sexual, and had been involved in a love affair with a high-school student, Rebecca, who has disappeared. Shortly thereafter, the detectives are informed that the apparently demure, middle-class Rebecca had become embroiled in Vincent's sex trade activities, leaving them uncertain whether the missing girl may be the unknown killer, or another victim.Writer/director Mermoud has created believable and sympathetic personalities for his four principal protagonists. His actors' fine performances ensure that an audience remains interested in the fate of their characters until the story's two time-lines are integrated in an unexpected and poignant conclusion. "Accomplices" is an exceptional film with an intriguing narrative arc unfolding in an original manner.

One more effective french crime drama. Very well characterized by Emmanuelle Devos and Gilbert Melki, it tells the story of an investigation after a coprse is found in the Seine river. The two leads, cops, slowly find some elements on the dead man's life. The editing of this movie let us discover who the dead was. Some flash backs are mixed up with the story in the present, where the two cops investigate.This is the story of relation ship between two individuals, the two cops, and also between the victim and his gril friend, how the young girl changes her mood with him, about his unavowable activies. The young man is a prostitute with wealthy business men or doctors...This is also a story which shows us how humans can be depraved.An ugly tale, but the ending saves us some hope.