L’ennemi intime

Set against the backdrop of the Algerian War, L’ennemi intime follows a group of almost comically stereotypical characters, including a grizzled vet (Albert Dupontel’s Sergeant Dougnac) and a wide-eyed neophyte (Benoît Magimel’s Lieutenant Terrien), as they attempt to combat an enemy that clearly has a homefield advantage. L’ennemi intime never comes off as anything other than a standard, hopelessly routine war flick, and there’s ultimately little doubt that stripped of its R-rated attributes, it’d feel right at home alongside a ’60s John Wayne effort (even the sets look low-rent and artificial). Director Florent-Emilio Siri has infused the proceedings with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer, with Patrick Rotman’s screenplay adopting increasingly overt anti-war tendencies as the movie progresses (we get it; war is eeeeevil). Rotman’s reliance on speechifying to get his points across essentially drains anything even resembling authenticity from the film, and although the performances are fairly adept, L’ennemi intime has virtually nothing of interest to say about the Algerian War (and, on a totally unrelated note, it’s 2007: can we please stop with the white-on-white subtitles?)

** out of ****