Opening Day: 13 January 2011

Synopsis:

From multicultural Paris to designer Paris, Montmartre to the Champs-Elysées, sleazy sidewalks to high-end galleries... Watch out! Sam the courier is a man on a mission!

On his scooter, Sam (Michaël Youn) breaks every rule of the road to make good on the "express delivery" promise of the courier service he works for. But however hard he tries, Sam never gets a bonus from his boss, never beats his slicker colleagues and never gets past his Dad, a cop who books him every time. All Sam has up is Nadia (Géraldine Nakache), and she will turn on him if he doesn't show up for her sister's wedding. Trouble is, Sam has one more delivery to make and his day has just gone from bad to worse...

Movie Review:

Do not believe those commercials you see on television – especially those featuring smiling deliverymen who flash their pearly whites when doors are opened. No, this doesn’t happen that often in real life. We’ve met quite a few couriers who are nothing like those handsome dudes in the adverts. In fact, these guys often display such disconcertedly flustered behaviours that we wonder whether we did anything to offend them.

You’d probably label us as unfeeling and unsympathetic folks, but wait till you meet a courier like Sam, the protagonist of this French movie.

You see, Sam is a dispatch rider who travels through the busy streets of Paris on his trusted scooter. He works for an unappreciative courier service company which hasn’t rewarded him with any bonus over the years. He has a mean and competitive colleague who makes his life difficult. To top things off, he has a girlfriend who expects him to be the perfect boyfriend. That’s probably too much stress for a deliveryman to take, which is why Sam isn’t the friendliest courier we’ve seen. With so many burdens, we understand why he jumps at the opportunity to run an urgent errand although he is supposed to attend a wedding with his demanding girlfriend. And as you would have expected, things go very wrong and he becomes involved in a crime caper that could cost his loved ones’ lives.

Do not worry for Sam, because this movie directed by Hervé Renoh is a comedy through and through. As you watch how our leading man gets himself into one trouble after another, you begin to secretly enjoy the misadventures he is going through. There’s a tautly paced scene where Sam has to shield his girlfriend from a sniper’s fatal shot in a café. There’s a rather violent fight scene where Sam gets into a brawl with a sexy female dealer. There’s a scene where Sam holds his policeman father hostage to escape a sticky situation. Of course, there are countless car chase sequences, and where better to shoot these scenes than the picturesque streets of Paris.

What a busy man Sam is, we hear you say.

The actor we who has our empathy is Michaël Youn. As the poor guy huffs, puffs and pants scene after scene in this 90 minute movie, we follow him as he goes on this adrenaline driven filled ride filled with action and comedic moments. Although there aren’t many surprises in store (we didn’t think you were expecting an ending where the bad guys get off scot free either), the predictable popcorn flick is still pleasant enough to sit through. There are occasional moments which are truly funny – watch how our anti hero uses staplers to pass off as guns, which turned out so convincing that a bank robbery was possible.

It also helps that Youn’s co stars Géraldine Nakache, Jimmy Jean Louis and Catalina Denis turn in enjoyable performances, complementing his comedic portrayal of a man who wants nothing more than to protect his loved ones from danger. That is also probably why this commercial movie will go down well with the masses, that there is the running theme of love in the midst of chaos.

Maybe it’s about time that we try to empathize with an unfriendly courier the next time we see one – we would never know what the poor guy went through before sending the package to our door.

Movie Rating:



(An entertaining ride through the streets of Paris)

Review by John Li