THE OTHER LAURENS - Mark Reviews Movies

The Other Laurens, Yellow Veil Pictures

Follow on Facebook | Follow on Twitter | Become a Patron

Review by Mark Dujsik | August 22, 2024

Something's afoot from the beginning of The Other Laurens. A meeting happens in a warehouse somewhere in France, having to do with a clandestine deal between a local gangster and an American woman accompanied by a gang of bikers. Meanwhile, a couple of the crime boss' guards talk about one having seen a man who should be dead out in the desert. That's impossible, of course, but the guy isn't convinced.

There's a lot of plotting in co-writer/director Claude Schmitz's underworld tale, but most of it happens in the background of a slightly different story. That main one revolves around a private investigator living and operating in Brussels—a man who pays his bills mostly by catching philandering spouses in the middle of an affair and snapping photos of those trysts. Gabriel Laurens (Olivier Rabourdin) gets something more out of this, or at least he wants to, if his staring at a naked, sleeping pair of lovers in bed is any indication.

The guy doesn't have much in or to his life. That much is clear from his disheveled appearance, the state of his cramped apartment, and the fact that the only communication he seems to have with others is in the form of work calls. The one exception is his ailing mother, who's experiencing dementia and living in a care facility. The mother keeps mistaking him for his brother, though, and while he tries to correct her, Gabriel has been overshadowed for so long that it hardly matters anymore.

The look on Gabriel's face, as he goes about his job and his lonely existence outside of it, tells a story, so it's little surprise when and how Schmitz and Kostia Testut's screenplay tells us more about this man's family, past, and reason for doing such seedy work. The character comes from an old tradition of noir heroes and anti-heroes, but Rabourdin invests the private investigator with such a level of existential dejectedness that we can't imagine any kind of heroics coming from such a sad sack of long-standing rejections and resentments.

The character, in other words, is much more intriguing than the plot in which he finds himself caught up, which has to do with the off-the-books business meeting, the apparent vision of that dead man, and more betrayals and secrets than even the screenwriters seem to be able to track. Since it's in the background for so long, such things don't really matter. Besides, the history of noir stories, of which this follows the tradition, is one of plots that can collapse with even a first thought toward their logic. They were never really about that, anyway, because the mood is what really matters.

Schmitz puts the mood of his movie entirely on Gabriel's already-burdened shoulders. In addition to having no life outside of his job and making sure his dying mother is comfortable, Gabriel is deeply in debt, having spent all his money on the care facility and still owing several months' worth of fees. The mother offers Gabriel, believing he's the other son, his late father's expensive watch, which would help, if it wasn't a fake. One imagines the guy is used to having insults added to injuries.

When the private investigator's teenage niece shows up at his door, Gabriel is pleasantly surprised and confused, but Jade (Louise Leroy) clears it up a bit. Her father, Gabriel's twin brother, died in what was a ruled a car accident, and even though her uncle didn't come to France for any of the funeral services, she thinks Gabriel might be able to help her and his dead brother now. Jade is convinced her father didn't die in an accident but was killed by someone over something.

For a while, the plot's premise is simply an excuse to force Gabriel confront the source of his insecurities, his self-doubt, and his belief that he was always the other Laurens brother, living in the shadow of his more confident, successful, and charismatic older—if only by a couple of minutes—brother. The guy ends up staying in his brother's mansion, wearing his clothes, driving one of his luxury cars, and eating meals with the niece and her stepmother, the brother's second wife, Shelby (Kate Moran), an American woman. Her nationality isn't a coincidence, obviously, but since Gabriel knows nothing about that secret meeting in the middle of nowhere, this means nothing to him.

Here, then, is a movie that feels at odds with itself, too. It's fascinating as a character study, especially as Gabriel starts to act more like his brother, which leads to some confusion on the part of people who think the brother is dead or are surprised to see him for another reason. Gabriel tries to connect with his niece, because he knew her mother (That story leads to the questionable inclusion of a historic tragedy) and maybe can make up for what he lost through the girl.

The puzzle of Gabriel is far more involving than the convoluted plot that he finds himself in the middle of and that The Other Laurens can't resist detailing. It's messy, to say the least, and maybe the big joke of the movie is that Gabriel is eventually and completely overshadowed by its machinations, as well. If that's the case, it is a darkly amusing punch line, but such a character deserves a little better than that.

Back to Home

Buy Related Products