This film is a challenging experience, and if you are used to the rhythms of television, to being stimulated by action and spectacle or you spend a good deal of time with video games, this film will drive you crazy; it's slow, sometimes maddeningly tedious, and the main character is far from heroic, in the usual sense.This is a film about people trapped by their own situation, by their experiences, by their environment, by their weaknesses--these are the folks you often see on the streets and wonder what their lives might be like; Director Dumont is not interested in entertaining you, but, I think, wants you to think about your own values, about how you react to other people.Insensitive viewers who are after the usual action popcorn movie, or with little empathetic response will probably dislike this film, as it is about the inner self, or the lack of it; moviegoers who want a challenge, a film unlike any other, might find this journey fascinating--but it does demand that you put aside your previous cinematic expectations.

"A police detective who has forgotten how to feel emotions, because of the death of his own family" That part of the summary doesn't ring true. He is clearly upset by the death, and the manner of it, in the early scenes. It seems the director was insensitive to his actors. Dispair, emptiness, loss were all well portrayed by the actors in the early scenes, but he just seemed to want more of the same, as though he hadn't got it yet. The effect was to drag the whole film out to the point of boredom. Add that to the fact that none of the characters were likable, and it is a wonder if any of the audience would still be there by the end of the film. The film did capture the distracted empty feeling that loss through death can bring, but that is all it managed to do, over and over again, for two and a half hours. The director should watch City Island and follow the advice given by Alan Arkin, "No Pauses!".We recognised Wimmeraux, that was a high point.

The main character, Pharaon, has suffered a loss of his wife and child in the pre-film past. He deals with with by just shutting down emotionally. Too long a movie, too much time spent on Pharaon's inexpressive face, too much "road time" (one of the banes of TV: filling time with moving cars, trains, etc.) Long scenes of him doing trivial - sometimes totally inexplicable, nonsensically trivial - actions with neither reason or emotion. His best friends Joseph and Domino are not much more, their relationship based on sex (this film perhaps gives new meaning to the phrase "gratuitous sex"); Domino and Pharaon's mother are the two characters who display some emotion, but not much. It is hard to tell with all the characters in this movie: is it indifferent acting, indifferent writing, or simply indifferent characters portrayed by good writing and good acting. Characters in this film talk very little to anyone; it's little wonder their emotionally isolated, which is all the more bizarre because it's clear they live in a neighborhood where the people are friendly and know each other.

I started watching this film at about midnight. Even though it was 148 minutes long and I was becoming increasingly tired, I couldn't switch it off. I can't explain what about this film appeals to me. Especially since it isn't as much about a manhunt for the killer and rapist of an 11-year-old girl as how disconnected we all are from one another.The lead actor conveys this melancholic, sweetness that makes a person want to embrace him. He's so filled with sadness and ennui. This really is such a deeply sad film. His neighbor, too, wastes her time with an immature and idiotic boyfriend. Their frequent sex scenes aren't as much erotic as desperate, feverish attempts to feel something.Another film that had a deep effect upon me was Mike Leigh's "All or Nothing." That's another slice-of-life, roll the cameras and then pretend they aren't there kind of film. I think what makes these types of films resonant with me is all the artifice seems stripped away. Faced with a mirror of myself and my society, I can't help but ache and feel hollow.As someone else said, few people will recommend this type of film, although critics invariably hail it. The reason - because this is more true than "Die Hard" or any other equally vacuous Hollywood blockbuster. I don't go to the cinema to be entertained. I want to see life and from that understand myself and my world better. "L'Humanite," which not surprisingly is written and directed by a philosopher, accomplishes those objectives.