An enjoyable slice of French cinema. Unlike Hollywood movies - which usually force the audience into overdrive - this forces the audience to slow down and look at some of life's tiniest and most mundane features in great detail. The acting is superlative, as is the realism throughout. Goodness knows what the censors will make of it outside of France (I saw it uncut at the Edinburgh Film Festival). The basic story is a police hunt in a small town in France. But there's no gloss - both the police detectives and the other characters are full of human frailty down to the last wart and boil. they are all quite ordinary characters till you dig beneath the surface - and when you do dig their quirks seem somehow believable and natural.