Dobermann Review

In 2008, Vincent Cassel starred in the Mesrine double bill, portraying the eponymous and legendary French criminal. Cassel inhabited his role and his stunning performance was one of the cinematic highlights of that year. In Dobermann, Cassel portrayed another French criminal, albeit a fictitious one. Released eleven years before Mesrine, Dobermann sees Cassel play the once again titular character, a resourceful and dangerous criminal, who was gifted with his first gun at his Christening. Together with his deaf girlfriend Nat the Gypsy and his motley crew of felons, Dobermann plans a daring bank robbery and the film follows the heist and the aftermath as sociopathic policeman Christini hunts down the gang.

If Mesrine was a detailed painting of a character by Cassel, Dobermann is an outrageous caricature. The film too, is stylistically garish, characters are paper thin, the plot is often wilfully odd and some elements simply make little or no sense. I might also add that I thought the film was very good. Coming across like a Gallic answer to the Tarantino crime capers, adding a healthy dose of Trainspotting’s frantic energy and a good dollop of over-riding weirdness, Dobermann is a fun, fast and exciting exercise in bad taste and big guns.

Whilst the crims are far from sympathetic – there’s a particularly nasty dispatching of a motor-biking policeman, which I won’t spoil here – Dobermann’s maniacal nemesis Christini, played by Tchéky Karyo is simply abominable. That said, you’re not really being asked to pick sides in a moral conflict here, rather just to sit back and watch the sparks fly. As well as some good action set-pieces and a bit of the old ultra-violence, there are several moments of high comedy, most notably during the heist, where one member of the gang argues with his girlfriend over the phone whilst another reassures an old lady. Monica Bellucci, Cassel’s wife since 1999, also gives a good performance and provides moments of humour and warmth.

Dobermann is the cinematic equivalent of a cheap energy drink – probably very bad for your health, but exciting and moreish. Aside for the truly hideous title sequence, in which a horrendously rendered CGI Doberman urinates on the credits, Dobermann hardly puts a foot wrong and delivers its cheap and cheerful thrills in spades. It also serves as an interesting forbearer to one of Cassel’s finest roles and an indicator of the honing of his craft.