Film Review - THE NIGHT OF THE 12TH
Images courtesy of Potential Films.
A policeman’s life is not for me. The frustration and tedium bleed through in The Night of the 12th and I’m convinced it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. Long gone are the days of John McClane, the cool cops who use their guns, and Yohan Vivès, a member of an elite unit known as… I’m not sure it ever gets a name. Again, the ‘elite’ watermark on their nametag is a new breed of cop on the big screen. This guy is methodical, calculating, perfect, and very frustrated by a murder he’s been assigned to that’s just a smidge too ambiguous.
Yohan’s team all plod along, pulling threads and eliminating leads in what’s honestly a very lowkey character-driven drama/murder mystery. The murder, however gruesome, is hardly embellished and instead director Dominik Moll chooses to focus on Clara Royer’s ghost, the forsaken girl who did not make it out of the 12th. Shifting the focus onto the officers, who through marital distress, blossoming love, algorithmic day-to-day habits, and open disdain for the job really contextualise the role of the modern-day elite law enforcement officer. Like I said, don’t expect buildings to explode like in 24. We’re all just clocking onto our 9-5 in Night of the 12th, but we don’t leave the office until well after midnight and lest I remind you, this overtime is most certainly unpaid.
I hope this paints a more realistic, albeit disappointing, take on the job but whereas others have the liberty to paint outside the lines in different features, this one is confined within the real story it’s based on. Of course, you can go to Wikipedia today and read about Clara’s story, but you aren’t an elite officer, you don’t need to read the reports. Just sit back, watch the movie, and live life.
A recurrent motif used throughout the movie really got me I must admit. I tried figuring out its relevance for the first half of the movie before just eventually enjoying our daily bike ride around the circuit with Yohan. When I finally figured the quite literal imagery of him going around in circles, the momentum shifted as visualised by the camera sweeping behind the bike and though we’re still in that loop, on the cusp of our 13th lap, for a fleeting moment it feels like we’re getting somewhere.
THE NIGHT OF THE 12TH is screening in cinemas from Thursday 13th of October. For tickets and more info, click here.