A matter of details: an effective thriller carried by a great Denzel Washington (review)

Suffering from comparison with Seven but with a pleasing ambiguity and amorality, the new John Lee Hancock arrives this weekend on free-to-air television.

It was in the early 90s while he was finishing the screenplay forA perfect world that John Lee Hancock wrote A matter of details. A thriller where two cops with opposing methods must team up against a serial killer. Released in cinemas in spring 2021, the film is scheduled this Sunday unencrypted on TF1, but in the second part of the evening: just before, place for Kev Adams in Retirement home.

Here is our review of this thriller led by Denzel Washington and Jared Leto.

Thirty years have passed, Hancock has signed eight films (including The Blind Side And In Mary's Shadow) before bringing to the screen this scenario which still takes place in the 90s. A good idea? Spontaneously, we would want to answer in the negative. With its mismatched detective duo and manipulative serial killer figure, A matter of details directly evokes Seven And Zodiaccompared to which he pales in comparison.

However, if we ignore this comparison, A matter of details does not lack assets: the tension that he knows how to create but above all Denzel Washington once again impressive as a cop who, broken by an investigation that he was unable to resolve, sees in the hunt for this serial killer with similar actions of the one on whom he could not lay his hands a means to take his revenge and save the past. Opposite him, Rami Malek (who plays his partner) also looks pale. And then there is this scenario that is less clear than it seems. Particularly around the figure of the one who seems far too ideal a culprit (Jared Leto as always at ease like a fish in water in this type of borderline role) to really be one. Fleeing the spectacular, conducted with mastery, A matter of details enjoys piling up doubts when he only seems to show certainties until a twisted epilogue that his apparent classicism did not allow us to guess.

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