A Self-Made Hero

This intriguing exploration of truth, perception, and self fulfillment is hung on the framework of World War II and the German occupation of France. Unfortunately the focus of director Jacques Audiard's well-composed adaptation of Jean-François Deviau's novel is unlikable, selfish, and, worst of all, uninteresting.

Mathieu Kassovitz (the director of Hate) plays Albert Dehousse, an insecure bookworm who bides the war as a nervous bystander, biting his lip in admiration of the French Resistance's efforts but never having the courage to act. Feeling inadequate and desiring greater self-actualization, Dehousse skips out on his wife and, after a brief fall into homelessness, reinvents himself in Paris as a hero of the Resistance, entitled to preferential treatment and the spoils of war.

Dehousse could easily have been depicted as an utterly despicable soul, but the innocent kindness -- reminiscent of Peter Sellers's Chauncey Gardiner -- that lingers on Kassovitz's face makes his manipulative impostor appealing beyond his raw, exploitative nature. French film legend Jean-Louis Trintignant is a pleasant addition in a bit part, though he too is stranded in the amoral material. At the Kendall Square.

-- Tom Meek