The Serpent review

Why you can trust GamesRadar+ Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.

On the coat-tails of Tell No One comes another slickly directed, strongly acted Parisian thriller about a middle-aged man framed for murder. Based on a yarn by Get Carter source novelist Ted Lewis, it follows Vincent (Yvan Attal), a photographer who’s on the verge of divorcing his wealthy German wife (Minna Haapkylä). He’s also the latest blackmail target of psychopath Plender (Clovis Cornillac), a former classmate bent on revenging a childhood upset. Writer/director Eric Barbier has only made three films in the last 15 years, but he sure knows his genre chestnuts: hence the wildly improbable escape from police custody, the mother-obsessed, ex-Foreign Legion baddie, the inevitable hand-to-hand showdown between adversaries. A mite overblown, but no less enjoyable for it – and guaranteed to get a Hollywood re-jig.

More info

Available platformsMovie
Less

The Total Film team are made up of the finest minds in all of film journalism. They are: Editor Jane Crowther, Deputy Editor Matt Maytum, Reviews Ed Matthew Leyland, New Editor Jordan Farley, and Online Editor Jack Shepherd. Expect exclusive news, reviews, features, and more from the team behind the smarter movie magazine.