agmtw logo
search
The Night of the 12th (2022)

The Night of the 12th (2022)

A shallow procedural that attempts to grapple with systemic misogyny while being oblivious to its own

5.0

Movie

Belgium, France
English, French
Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
2022
DOMINIK MOLL
Anouk Grinberg, Bastien Bouillon, Bouli Lanners
114 min

TLDR

This six-time César winner is, unwittingly, a depressing example of male mediocrity itself.

What it's about

A police captain is tormented by his fruitless investigation into the brutal murder of a young woman.

The take

The opening titles of this French procedural drama explicitly tell us that the crime it chronicles will go unsolved, confessing that it’s about one of the approximately 160 murder cases that police don’t crack each year. An ambitious and intriguing opener — suggesting that, in the absence of a clean resolution, the film will nonetheless offer us something equally compelling, as Zodiac does. 

In following the investigation of the brutal murder of 21-year-old Clara (Lula Cotton-Frapier) — for which the police interrogate various of her exes, all misogynistic potential murderers in their own ways — the film seeks to explore the society-wide “problem between men and women” that has given the police its surplus of suspects. Alas, it’s much more interested in the psychological impact cold cases have on policemen like frustrated captain Yohan (Bastien Bouillon). There’s something deeply ironic about making a movie about the systemic dehumanization of women just to center male perspectives, especially when their only insight into the epidemic of toxic masculinity is Yohan’s clunky “We can’t find the murderer because all men killed Clara.” The film’s treatment of the victim herself — incurious and downright gratuitous in the depiction of her murder — cements it as a shallow, un-self-aware, and failed attempt to reckon with a subject that deserved its full focus.

What stands out

The most interesting character in the film is Yohan’s middle-aged partner Marceau (Bouli Lanners), a workaholic on the brink of divorce as a result of his wife’s infidelity. From his gruff aura and troubled home life, it'd be easy to assume he’d be one of the worst culprits in the police department’s band of boorish victim-blamers, but neither Marceau nor Yohan is anything of the sort. While the former is left to exist as a hollow perfect feminist hero, though, Lanners makes up for that central lack of depth with his rich characterization of a man genuinely agonized and infuriated by all the apathy he witnesses during the investigation. It’s to its own detriment that The Night of the 12th sidelines him partway through its runtime.

Comments

Add a comment

Your name

Your comment

UP NEXT 

UP NEXT 

UP NEXT 

More like this in

Once Were Warriors (1994)

A Maori family survives in an alienating Auckland in this raw, tragic drama

8.0

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (2002)

Two boys bond with the village seamstress through banned books in this coming-of-age historical drama

7.2

Silenced (2011)

A brutal and harrowing exposé of the schoolwide abuse case that sparked outrage in Korea

9.0

My Old Ass (2024)

A pleasant mix of comedy and coming-of-age that may or may not leave you in tears

8.0

The Substance (2024)

Demi Moore swaps bodies in this standout chaotic body dysmorphia horror

8.3

The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005)

A gangster’s son finds a new way of living in this intense, piano-playing neo-noir

7.6

Being Julia (2004)

A middle age crisis leads to a star finding her spark in this insightful comedy

7.1

Look Back (2024)

Art connects people through time and space in this short and sweet drama

9.0

Zatoichi: Darkness Is His Ally (1989)

The blind swordsman makes his last stand in this action-packed, nostalgic conclusion

7.0

The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)

A star-studded and riveting legal drama with a blockbuster feel.

8.1

Curated by humans, not algorithms.

agmtw logo

© 2024 agoodmovietowatch, all rights reserved.