By Matthew Moorcroft

Solid Recommendation

• Directed by Dominik Moll
• Starring Bastien Bouillon, Bouli Lanners, Theo Cholbi, Anouk Grinberg
• Not Rated

From it’s opening title card, you know how The Night of the 12th is going to end. It doesn’t try to hide it at any point either, making it clear that what you are witnessing isn’t going to be resolved in any traditional manner. The film gives you just enough clues to possibly have some kind of idea of who could have done it, but even then it’s mostly just heresay based on personal biases that the audience or characters might have.

These kinds of stories are difficult to write well, though when they are they tend to be among some of cinema’s finest. There is a reason that despite their lack of resolution to the main murders, films like Zodiac have remained a cornerstone of the police procedural genre for a very long time and while The Night of the 12th isn’t going to completely change the game in that regard, it’s remarkably study when it needs to be. Dominik Moll has been quietly making a name for himself in his native France for quite a while, bouncing between a multitude of genres and projects without missing much of a beat.

Him and his normal screenwriter Giles Marchand, who returns after a film off, find themselves at an interesting crossroads though with The Night of the 12th overall in regards to it’s subject matter – how can two men accurately portray the systemic injustice that women go through on the daily? How can they talk about the failings of the justice system if they themselves benefit from it. This is the same dilemma that our lead protagonist has here as well as he tries to solve the murder of a young woman whose death investigation is muddied by the sexist ideas of co-workers, victim blaming, and suspects that were chosen based on gut instinct rather then evidence.

The Night of the 12th could have so easily been one-sided or even a preachy diatribe, especially considering a lead female character isn’t introduced into the cast until the last 30 minutes and the film is left with a group of male characters for our perspective during what should be a fundamentally women centric tale. However, The Night of the 12th is remarkably more nuanced then you would expect, honing in on the smaller details of it’s investigation and examining them with a close eye rather then lingering on the massive, societal implications of it’s case. Which is very fitting for the cast in the start – they just wanna know the facts. They aren’t interested in politicizing. They have their assumptions, yes, but this is simply an investigation and that’s all.

Moll and Marchand eventually subvert this well, time skipping in the final act and recontextualizing the entire ordeal as one of failure for the justice system but a moment of triumph for our lead. There is a stakeout moment in a car during the film’s final major sequence that has a conversation between him and the brand new rookie on the force, the first woman a part of the group, and he remarks that “something is amiss between men and women”. It’s a bit blunt but strangely effective – it really shouldn’t work but Moll’s confidence that the audience has bought into his cast of characters as flawed but understandable human beings is evident. He doesn’t linger, he doesn’t over-dramatize, he just lets it play out.

And that’s honestly probably the best thing he could have done here. The sturdy filmmaking and performances – particularly from an excellent Basiten Bouillon who is just fantastic here – carry what is otherwise boilerplate stuff, but there is a reason police procedurals make for compelling narratives. It’s not going to knock your socks by means, and stuff like Memories of Murder remain the gold standard for material like this, but it’s still real solid stuff and worth your time. Good movie, really good even!