Chrysalis

I was able to locate a copy of first time French director Julien Leclerq’s sci-fi actioner Chrysalis recently. While its not the best sci-fi film I have ever seen, its one of the best I've seen recently. There is much to love in its deliberate pacing, cold noir atmosphere, and superbly staged action/fight sequences. And why wouldn't the fight scenes please me when they have Alain Figlarz of "Brotherhood of the Wolf" and the Bourne films behind them? I won't say much, but the film is about a hardcore detective David Hoffman who is obsessed with catching Dimitri Nicolov who killed his wife and partner in front of him, and in a parallel storyline, a teenage girl named Manon, who is recovering from being badly injured in a car wreck. I don't think it ruins anything to say that these two character's lives will intertwine, the interesting thing is how. While the plot suffers a little in place of style, it is clear that Julien Leclerq can direct with the best of them and I look forward to his next project, a real terrorist story called "Air France Flight 8969" (also with Alain Figlarz). Check out the trailer: