Ad Vitam Review: Good Premises But Is Lost in a Confused and Inconsistent Narrative
Ad Vitam also comes to us on Netflix, with a big promotional push from France, especially given the first-person commitment, by Guillaume Canet, among the best transalpine actors, as well as producer, co-writer, and protagonist of the film. However, this thriller action is a film that proves to be quite limited in terms of effectiveness and energy, a product that is a bit old and out of time. Guillaume Canet is one of the best-known French actors, multifaceted and appreciated in transalpine cinema and beyond. This allowed him to enjoy some consideration in the local audiovisual industry and also outside national borders. This is demonstrated by the many works for the small and large screen in which he has taken part in recent years, including the direction of Asterix & Obelix – The Middle Kingdom in which he plays the famous comic character created by Goscinny and Uderzo.
This position and relative weight led him to expand his professional background and actively participate in the various phases of the projects that see him involved not only as an interpreter. It is the case of Ad Vitam, his most recent cinematographic effort directed by his compatriot Rodolphe Lauga, available to subscribers of Netflix from January 10, 2025, in which he was also engaged as a producer and co-writer. This allowed him to become the center of gravity on and around which to build a film and a tailor-made character, which highlighted both the actor and physical skills. And so it was, with the film in question that it is a real solo that tastes like a man show. Guillaume Canet plays Franck Lazarev, a former member of the GIGN elite unit, forced to confront a past that threatens his future. However, history soon loses momentum, stumbling into a narrative that alternates moments of tension with forced and long-winded emotional pauses.
Ad Vitam Review: The Story Plot
“Ad Vitam” features the former GIGN agent (the special forces of the French Gendarmerie) Franck Lazarev (Guillaume Canet), who has been landing for some time as superintendent of the works of the Notre Dame cathedral, often all clogged in mid-air between harnesses and ropes. Married to Leo (Stéphane Caillard) and waiting for a son, Franck is almost killed by the carelessness of a new colleague of his, who immediately escapes. But why did it happen? It all dates back to 10 years earlier, when Franck entered the GIGN, following the paternal example, quickly becoming one of the team’s top elements. But following a confused and mysterious operation that ended badly, Franck was forced to resign and say goodbye to his career. After so many years, though, evidently, someone has decided that it is time to plug his mouth anyway, so he kidnaps his wife and threatens him. But what does Franck know so important? The final answer will come after an intricate, tortuous, complicated drama.
We will find ourselves between state secrets, secret services, subversion, and above all the clear feeling that nothing is what it seems. Ad Vitam is directed by Rodolphe Lauga and sees Guillaume Canet as producer, as well as co-writer together with David Corona and Rodolphe Lauga. The French actor is surrounded by a cast that includes, among others, Nassim Lyes, Zita Hanrot, Jonah Heldenberg, and Alexis Manenti, and tries from the first to the last minute to give credibility to a story that, objectively, knows a lot of already seen and already heard. Ad Vitam continually winks at the great classics of cinematography that have tried to combine spy stories, action, and thrillers. The plot in itself moves between past and present continuously, trying to make us understand the general picture a little at a time, although from mid onwards the cards are now quite face-up. The final result is a film that assumes a lot of itself, especially from its protagonist, but has very few cartridges to shoot and those few are not particularly valued even aesthetically.
Ad Vitam Review and Analysis
“Ad Vitam ” tries to bring back to life the energy that characterized the Jason Bourne saga, other times you can grasp a link with iconic titles such as “The Three Days of the Condor”, “The Fugitive” or similar, but the reality is that the film honestly looks more like a second-class old-style television production than the intriguing modern thriller that was expected. Guillaume Canet is an actor of great caliber, but he appears honestly out of the way, above all because age begins to no longer be so green to interpret the same character in a credible way 10 years later. “Ad Vitam” tries to compensate with an abundant dose of violence, but the action scenes are also stereotyped, and old and only add a feeling of artificial backwardness to the whole that, as it goes on, it is strengthened by the tear-jerking dialogues, by fairly sterile characters, by a feeling of tiredness that pervades everything. “Ad Vitam” then does not have who knows what nemesis, the twists that are proposed are such only on paper.
In short, the film is in all respects a series B product, it also seems strange enough that Canet has personally dedicated himself to it with a lot of agreement, in the face of the result obtained. The genre of the rest has made a major evolution in the 21st century and it is not enough to think of conceiving an internal conspiracy, black ops, and bringing the “fifth column” climate back to life to claim something significant. But most of all, this is a film that seems to be a series of scenes stuck one behind the other, almost mathematically, without there being a safe directing hand or a clear identity, without ever feeling truly related to the protagonist and the various other characters. Someone will perhaps pull some ties in the middle with another iconic saga of these years: that of “Taken” with Liam Neeson. Let’s not joke, compared to that sort of revival of the B-year series at Charles Bronson it was a John Woo masterpiece, this instead is a pale imitation and does not even have a shred of the adrenaline of the adventures of Bryan Mills.
One of Ad Vitam‘s main weaknesses is the excessive use of flashbacks, which, despite having the intention of deepening Franck’s personal history and his connection with GIGN, end up compromising the rhythm of the film. Initially, these returns to the past seem promising, offering a look at crucial events that define the protagonist and the context of the plot. However, as the narrative progresses, it becomes repetitive and intrusive, breaking the accumulated voltage and dispersing the energy of the action. What could have been an effective tool to involve the viewer on an emotional level turns into an element that hinders the narrative flow, reducing the impact of the action sequences and leaving the public with the sensation of an unbalanced film. The result is a failed attempt to balance adrenaline and emotional introspection, which penalizes both aspects. One of Ad Vitam‘s strengths is undoubtedly its visually cured production, which aims to compensate for narrative gaps with an attractive aesthetic.
From the suggestive views of the Sacré-Coeur to the majestic settings of Versailles, the film exploits iconic locations to create a visual impact that captures attention. The action sequences, although not always original, are well choreographed and, in some moments, manage to offer authentic twists. However, this visual spectacularity collides with a fragile and predictable texture, which struggles to support the weight of expectations. Even the development of the characters, despite the good performances of the actors, remains superficial and devoid of the depth necessary to bring out their dramatic potential. Ultimately, Ad Vitam offers a cinematic experience that satisfies the eye but leaves the heart and mind waiting for something more incisive. Despite the good performances of Guillaume Canet and Stéphane Caillard and some successful action scenes, Ad Vitam struggles to find the balance between thriller and drama. The aspiration to offer an emotionally engaging story and an adrenaline-fueled action movie fails, leaving the viewer with a sense of confusion and dissatisfaction.
Here we are then dealing for the umpteenth time with a story and characters photocopy by design and characterization to those that literature and genre cinematography have already brought us together on an unknown number of occasions. Hence the power of premonition of the spectator concerning what is about to happen and what will happen, but also to the way of conceiving everything by authors who follow a now widely coded script that winks at those great classics of the vein that they have combined spy-story, action, detective and thriller. In Ad Vitam all these souls are condensed and mixed seamlessly, to give life to a narrative structure that is a simple device to tell another manhunt of the target on duty who finds himself involved in a very state affair bigger than him. On this trigger, there is an endless filmography that teleports the thought of the user straight overseas to all those US titles and not based on the encirclement of a targeted subject who tries to frame. Those responsible, however, must deal with him, his training, and his ability to pull himself and his affections from unpleasant situations such as the one facing Canet’s Franck. The latter ends up being a clone built in the image and likeness of other characters (see Jason Bourne of the homonymous saga or similar) that like him had to face the crossfire both friend and enemy.
In short, you will have understood that Lauga’s film, a director whose precedents in comedy and sport-drama (Situation amoureuse: C’est compliqué is The source) have not left their mark, sin and deficient as it is in writing, with this limiting itself to replicating like a soup heated flavors, colors and solutions that the palates, even those of the subscribers to Netflix, have already tasted to boredom. Fortunately, the flavor is at least that and is given by an action that focuses entirely on the rhythm, staging, and choreography of the high-impact scenes. All this, however, is concentrated in the last half hour where the filmmaker and the actor can finally push their foot once and for all on the accelerator and the trigger with a succession of well-made pursuits and shootings.
Because the usual, minced, and retracted conspiracy theory has frankly stewed. Like everything else, which is nothing new: an operation not conducted in a manner loyal to the rules it’s bad, and the team leader – Franck – pays the consequences … But never as much as who he loses the life. They follow, as expected, guilt, desire to do justice, desire to reveal the truth, and blah, blah, blah. In the middle we put the ill-concealed unhappiness for the announcement of a pregnancy, the agents of foreign services ugly and bad, and the naivety of whom would do better to just act (good cast, everything, especially Canet) and a direct (good direction) instead of writing, a profession he does not know. Ingenuity like using the same device, a tassai unlikely forgetfulness, twice and then unleashing related action scenes or tragic narrative developments. It seems plausible to you that one of the CIA forgets the phone in the room or that one of the forensics, after spending hours finding a crime scene, forgets the briefcase with the finds?
No. And no, twice. Simplify at most the most important part of the whole plot, that is, the one that makes a simple intervention go wrong a plot for a cover-up does not help, on the contrary. We go downhill. Until everything is blown up. I don’t tell you, as, not so much to avoid spoilers but why wouldn’t you believe me anyway? Throughout the first part of the film, the thing I kept thinking about was: if we Italians had tried to mimic the Americans with such a film, we would have failed miserably from the first second. Mainly for acting. The French, however, have been good so yes: Ad Vitam is a film that imitates another sixteen thousand similar American titles, but it does well, adding some truly suggestive scenarios to Paris and perfectly lowering history in the European context, which was not obvious. At the beginning, though. Only at the beginning. The problems come, and there are many. Too bad, because the production quality is undeniable, the deployment of means and special effects is there and with that budget and that cost, you could do a lot. Maybe don’t show us Versailles in the world where they show it to us, though. The GIGN, an acronym for Groupe d’Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale, is an elite unit of the French National Gendarmerie. It would have deserved more likelihood and less grilled at S.W.A.T. copied from overseas films.
Ad Vitam Review: The Last Words
An all-action one-man show for Guillaume Canet who writes, produces, and interprets a film that mixes action and spy story following a canvas already seen. The result is yet another hunt for a human target who finds himself having to dodge friendly and enemy fire to save himself and his beloved hostage. The director Rodolphe Lauga and his main actor just must push the accelerator and the trigger to make up for the schematic and repetitiveness of the writing to shake the timeline. But even there you have to wait patiently for the last half hour to start getting serious with pursuits and impact and adrenaline shootings. “Ad Vitam” is a French action thriller that starts with good premises but is lost in a confused and inconsistent narrative. The film attempts to balance moments of action with emotional depth, but the excess of flashbacks and subplots slow down the rhythm and dilute the impact. Despite the skill of the actors and some memorable scenes, the result is a work that entertains at times but does not leave its mark.
Cast: Jean Dujardin, Léa Seydoux, Vincent Cassel
Director: Julien Leclercq
Streaming Platform: Netflix
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 2/5 (two stars)
