MOVIE REVIEW

The stylish French neo-noir doesn't get beneath the surface of its story or characters.

By Kevin Crust, Times Staff Writer

Like the season from which it takes its title, the crime drama "Autumn" is a bit on the chilly side. Writer-director Ra'up McGee, who also produced and edited, modeled the film on the French noirs of the 1960s. An obvious labor of love for the filmmaker, an American who spoke no French when he began the project, it relies too heavily on the pretense of style.

Though it is handsomely shot by director of photography Erin Harvey and well acted, McGee's cool detachment and oblique method of storytelling prevent it from being engaging.

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Laurent Lucas, an actor with intense, deep-set eyes and a menacing brow, plays Jean-Pierre, a hit man who, before undergoing an awakening of conscience, could calmly chomp an apple while committing murder.

In the film's opening sequence, Jean-Pierre runs into a close childhood friend, Michelle (Irène Jacob), and then fails to follow through with a killing he's been hired to perform. One of the film's conceits is to give the audience only essential information — and it sometimes stops short of even that. Apparently, Jean-Pierre and Michelle have not seen one another for many years but quickly become lovers.

There is a third friend, André (Benjamin Rolland), a cabdriver who appears to have stayed in touch with the other two. The film toys with intermittent flashbacks to scenes from the trio's youth set in a forest — the same location where Jean-Pierre has his epiphany. In the flashbacks, something bad happens, portending the present situation.

Jean-Pierre seems relieved to be free of his killing ways and focuses his attention on Michelle, but there are things about her he doesn't know. She, too, has fallen into the criminal life, delivering materials for explosives in exchange for English lessons from the loutish Hugo (Jean-Claude Dreyfus). There is also the small matter of her connection to a missing metal briefcase on which the film's elliptical plot turns.

Any hope of Jean-Pierre beginning a new life fades with his increasing involvement with Michelle and his desire to protect her. First he breaks Hugo's leg after the lech attempts to force himself on Michelle, then he becomes trapped between two crime bosses eager to make use of his services. Noël (the always estimable Michel Aumont), is a restaurateur and businessman who originally hired Jean-Pierre for the hit he did not complete. Claude (Samuel Dupuy) is an upstart who wants Noël out of the way and would like Jean-Pierre to locate the enigmatic briefcase.

The briefcase actually is a perfect icon for the film. It's sleek and impenetrable, and we're presumably meant to be curious about its contents and the various characters' motivations for wanting to possess it. However, McGee is intentionally vague as to how everything fits together, and that is precisely what limits the film's intrigue. The twists and reversals that pile up, stirred by greed, friendship and betrayal, fail to register any meaning, simply accumulating — so that ultimately "Autumn" is as dry and lifeless as the leaves that fall to the ground in its opening images.

'Autumn'

MPAA rating: Unrated

A Truly Indie release. Producer-writer-director-editor Ra'up McGee. Executive producer Daniel Cheifetz. Director of photography Erin Harvey. Music Cyril Morin. Art director Rashad Carré. In French with English subtitles.

Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes.

At Landmark's Westside Pavilion Cinema, 10800 Pico Blvd., L.A. (310) 281-8223