Public Enemy Number One: Part Two

Picking up where Public Enemy Number One: Part One left off, Public Enemy Number One: Part Two follows notorious gangster Jacques Mesrine (Vincent Cassel) as he continues his pattern of criminal endeavors and prison breaks in his home town of France – with his efforts assisted by a fiercely loyal girlfriend (Ludivine Sagnier’s Sylvie Jeanjacquot) and a quiet yet efficient partner (Mathieu Amalric’s Francois Besse). There’s little doubt that filmmaker Jean-François Richet does a superb job of immediately capturing the viewer’s interest, as the director, working from a script cowritten with Abdel Raouf Dafri, kicks the proceedings off with a series of action-oriented interludes that effectively establish an atmosphere of palpable excitement (which isn’t that surprising, really, given that the opening half hour features bank robberies, car chases, police shootouts, and prison escapes). Cassel’s magnetic and downright electrifying performance certainly goes a long way towards sustaining the film’s engrossing vibe, and it’s worth noting that the movie doesn’t palpably start to run out of steam until its well past the halfway mark. Public Enemy Number One: Part Two‘s transformation from a balls-to-the-wall action flick to an episodic drama ensures that, like its predecessor, the film ultimately feels as though its been padded out to justify the saga’s two parts, which effectively ensures that both movies would have been better served had they been edited down into one consistently engrossing thriller. Still, Public Enemy Number One: Part Two is, for the most part, an engaging piece of work that answers any and every question one might have had about Jacques Mesrine – except, curiously enough, why the police chose to take him down in a manner resembling a mob hit.

*** out of ****