Ad Vitam Review: Clichéd, Silly Thriller Which Doesn’t Entertain

Ad Vitam Review: Clichéd, Silly Thriller Which Doesn’t Entertain - K-waves and Beyond

Director: Rodolphe Lauga

Date Created: 2025-01-10 22:25

Editor's Rating:
1.5

Ad Vitam Review: The French Netflix thriller directed by Rodolphe Lauga and co-written by Guillaume Canet is a story of betrayal, redemption and action-packed desperation. The film stars Guillaume Canet, Stéphane Caillard, Alexis Manenti, Nassim Lyes and others. The film follows a former elite GIGN officer past comes back to haunt him when his wife is missing and time is running out. With a runtime of just over 90 minutes, Ad Vitam promises edge-of-your-seat action but ultimately falls short with its cliched storytelling and lack of emotional depth.

Ad Vitam Review

A Netflix thriller about kidnapping, a hero with a complicated past and action, is bound to be a thriller. Unfortunately, Ad Vitam doesn’t work. What starts off promising and with lots of action and drama ultimately turns out to be a slow, predictable and all-out frustrating movie that I really wanted more of, and it wasn’t in a good way.

It is the story of how Franck Lazareff, a former GIGN officer, tracks down a group of armed men who kidnapped his pregnant wife, Léo. This could’ve been a gripping tale of high-stakes action and redemption, but instead turns into a painfully dull experience, peddling in clichés, and telling us nothing new.

The film is excruciatingly slow to start the first half of it. But too much time is spent creating a backstory for Franck that fills out but doesn’t need to be filled out. We get some flashbacks of his GIGN days and past failures, which are supposed to hold up a moment, but they get dragged out so long that they kill the momentum. You don’t pick things up until the lobby shootout that happens when the damage is already done.

Guillaume Canet’s performance is the type of action hero archetype, but he lacks the fire needed to get us to buy into Franck. He does not feel like a desperate man fighting his life to save his wife, but without feeling or being detached. Instead, he strived for Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt but came out more like an amped-up Gerard Butler, which is about as exciting as you want a role like this to be.

Yet another missed opportunity is Léo, played by Stéphane Caillard. Although she is a former GIGN operative, she almost always spends the film as a helpless damsel in distress character. The result is disappointing — or out of touch — as a story about resilience and woman versus monster was reduced to the role of a plot device.

Nico and Ben (Alexis Manenti, Nassim Lyes) don’t do much to move the story along, either. Their characters feel like something left on hold for a bit, to slot into the plot, and forgotten again.

While the movie finally attempts to deliver action in the second half, it ends up feeling over-the-top and absurd. In one scene, Franck escapes by piloting a paramotor, or in other words a motorised paraglider on your back. This moment, instead of being thrilling, comes off as cheesy and ridiculous, like a failed attempt at mimicking James Bond or Mission: Impossible.

They’re ambitious action sequences, but not finesse. Stunts filmed in iconic Paris locales – like Versailles – look very impressive but add nothing to the story. The action to be sure is clear the filmmakers wanted it to stand out, but without strong characters or stakes to back it up, these moments feel hollow.

The screenplay, co-authored by Guillaume Canet and Rodolphe Lauga, is neither original or coherent. The plot is very much an afterthought, glued with cringe-worthy twists and cliched tropes. Then, quite simply, the direction of Rodolphe Lauga totally does not help, when the pace and the tone are inconsistent throughout the film. The fragmented storytelling; back and forth between the present day and flashbacks, doesn’t make things clearer but rather more confusing.

Summing Up

Ad Vitam 2025 is a frustrating watch. It begins slowly, gets ludicrously silly, but never settles on a footing. Action is forgettable, the story feels like patched-together cliches from greater action movies and performances are lacklustre.

There are much better French thrillers on Netflix if you’re looking for an engaging one. Netflix’s Ad Vitam is the sort of film you might spend 90 minutes regretting that you did—time better spent with something that’s actually entertaining. This movie might be too mindless an action picture for fans of good stories or character-driven drama. Unfortunately, this one is a hard pass for me.

French thriller movie Ad Vitam is now available on Netflix.

Also Read: The Breakthrough Review: Gripping Journey into Justice and Innovation

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Hot Topics

Related Articles

Ad Vitam Review: This movie 5 is a frustrating watch. It begins slowly, gets ludicrously silly, but never settles on a footing. Action is forgettable, the story feels like patched-together cliches from greater action movies and performances are lacklustre.Ad Vitam Review: Clichéd, Silly Thriller Which Doesn’t Entertain