Review of Guide de la petite vengeance (2006) by Hugo S — 14 Mar 2008

GUIDE DE LA PETITE VENGEANCE (2006).

Directed by Jean-François Pouliot.

Starring Marc Béland, Michel Muller, Gabriel GasconVengeance has been an important theme in movies this past decades. From Memento to Oldboy and Kill Bill, they all brought different insight and served they revenge differently. The French-Canadian Guide de la petite vengeance tackles the same issue but with more depth and as a dark comedy.Bernard is an accountant in a jewelry. His boss is really taking advantage of him but in a very subtle way, playing on his mind with small pettiness. But when he takes notice of that and his own situation, its too late, cause he has already lost his family and cant really remember who he is, until he meet a strange man, who claims he used to have his job. Together they plan a revenge on Vendôme, the boss. They want to steal just a few diamonds just to bug him a little and feel better about themselves. Its not about the money, it really is about the revenge and appreciating, savouring the moment.The first part of the film is spent establishing the main character and how naive he has become about his life. We understand he didnt always used to be like that and that make his situation even more tragic when he tries, in vain, to win back his wife. We also see the preparation of the robbery with some funny stuff and its all entertaining. Second part is the most interesting though, with the character having to deal with his done revenge and slowly becoming again, who he used to be. Guide de la petite vengeance is filled with details that make the whole experience even more enjoyable. The script by Ken Scott is extremely clever and its very well-written. The insight about what revenge is really all about is very good stuff and the dark humor is perfect with that type of material.It would have been easy to cast bigger stars for this film but except for Pascale Bussières, the cast is made of lesser known actor, but not lesser talent ones. Marc Béland in the lead is perfect, he is believable in both persona he is and used to be. Gabriel Gascon as the boss is cold and scary in a way, he uses his voice perfectly. Michel Mueller, an Austrian actor, quite known overseas, in France, does play psychopath very well. Guide de la petite vengeance can obviously deceive a lot of people cause its made by the same French-Canadian team behind La grande séduction a very funny and feel-good film, so people might expect the same from this one, but its the total opposite, but doesnt mean its not a good film. Good stuff.