Le petit lieutenant
Koch Lorber Films | Release Date: September 8, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
71
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 19 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
2
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
More than on "Prime Suspect," more than any film in recent memory, Le Petit Lieutenant conveys the relentless toll of big-city police work. Read full review
91
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
Nathalie Baye is remarkable in Le Petit Lieutenant where she plays Caroline Vaudieu, a Parisian police inspector who returns to her post after a bout with alcoholism following her child's death. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
A quiet powerhouse of a film, an implacable, uncompromising French police drama, both old-fashioned and modern, that underlines the reasons impeccably made crime stories do so well on screen. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
A flinty, almost hardhearted work about characters who have lost almost everything in pursuit of some undefinable abstraction, like honor or their country or doing the right thing. It's an impressive film, but don't expect any warm fuzzies. Read full review
80
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
Le Petit Lieutenant embraces the spectrum of human drama and comedy, and like a lot of French films it is keenly involved with the everyday pulse of work. Read full review
80
SlateDana Stevens
The final minute of the movie is one of the most bleak, and moving, endings I've seen in years. Read full review
80
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
This is the fourth film directed and at least co-written by Beauvois. (He has acted in a number of pictures, including a previous one of his own, and he is in Le Petit Lieutenant for a while.) He is a clean and sure director, with a good selective eye: he knows where we ought to be looking at any moment. We can hope for more Beauvois films with worlds of their own. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
On the surface, Le Petit Lieutenant is propelled by the search for two Russians somehow responsible for a pair of murders along the Seine. And though that's a pretty mundane setup for an urban drama, it serves nicely in allowing us to get to know the haunted Caroline and the impetuous Antoine. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
A fine, taut, tough example of the realistic police drama. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterSheri Linden
The drama's moments of cinematic power more than compensate for the slow-moving stretches that don't connect, and its characters will stay with viewers long after the lights go up. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
Light on visceral thrills and heavy on the quotidian rhythms of life on the force, Xavier Beauvois' police procedural owes more to "Prime Suspect" and "Hill Street Blues" than it does to any film genre. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
The movie's realism is unimpeachable, though American cops might be stunned by the idea of a half-dozen detectives being assigned to the murder of an anonymous floater. Read full review
70
Washington PostStephen Hunter
Le Petit Lieutenant shows how good French movies can be when they stay French and don't try to go international. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
In the end, the film belongs to Baye, a veteran French actress who handles the part with toughness and vulnerability without overselling either facet of her character. Read full review
63
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
The only thing that enlivens Beauvois' anti-thriller is Baye's beautiful performance. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeLeighton Klein
You can sense Baye's struggling within the limits imposed on her. In her own way, she can convey the heat of a Penelope Cruz, the power of Mirren, the barely contained madness of Judi Dench -- but not here. They're just not on the beat she's been given. Read full review
40
VarietyLeslie Felperin
Seems so determined to reproduce the drudgery of police work, it's boring for the first hour, and only marginally more exciting for the second. Read full review
40
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
Beauvois, who co-wrote, seems hellbent on making the most realistic cop film of all time, shruggingly consumed with downtime, small talk, minor incident, and dead ends, and he's succeeded--the narrative wouldn't have cut it in a Kojak story meeting. Read full review
38
New York PostKyle Smith
Keeps such a lazy pace, with so many scenes that fail to move the story forward, that it should be cited for failing to meet the minimum speed for a crime drama. Read full review
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