Review: A Prophet (2010)

[Steve Rhodes]

A PROPHET
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2009 Steve Rhodes

RATING (0 TO ****): ** 1/2

A PROPHET (UN PROPHETE) is one quarter of a great movie.  But, after its 
frightening opening act, the rest of the movie is remarkably ho hum and way 
too long.  It's well worth seeing for its devastatingly intense first thirty 
minutes, but, after that, it really doesn't have much compelling material to 
offer.  While the last three quarters of the film isn't bad, its confusing 
and meandering narrative pales in comparison to the film's initial segment.

A prison drama, A PROPHET is one of those types of movies that drop us into 
the story without any introduction.  We are following Malik El Djebena 
(Tahar Rahim), who is a prisoner on his first day in a dreary prison 
probably somewhere in France.  Being part French and part Arab, Malik finds 
himself living in something of a no-man's land, not belonging naturally to 
any of the prison's warring factions.

A tough old guy named Cesar Luciani (Niels Arestrup in chilling performance) 
"adopts" Malik, not that Malik is given any choice in the matter.  Cesar is 
part of the Corsicans' gang, and he appears to currently have the position 
of the prison's top dog.  Acting on orders from the outside, Cesar needs to 
have an Arab named Reyeb (Hichem Yacoubi) executed.  Reyeb is in prison 
while waiting to testify in ten days at a trial.  Cesar tells Malik that he 
must kill Reyeb within the ten days, or Cesar will have Malik killed.

Using handheld cinematography with lots of close-up, graphic images, 
director Jacques Audiard (READ MY LIPS) makes you feel like you are in 
prison.  The overcast skies, the grim prison cells and the dingy color 
palette give an intense feeling of foreboding doom.  Malik finds that 
murdering someone, even when trained carefully by experts, is actually very 
hard to do.  Plus, it's very scary.  You'll vicariously experience his 
emotions.  It's not fun.

This whole first section of the story, up to and including the killing, is 
much scarier that most horror movies.  But, after really getting under your 
skin in this beginning portion, the director loses control.  Maybe if the 
first part wasn't so good, the limitations of the rest of the film would not 
have been so glaring.  But, the bottom line is that the movie goes from 
being a contender for best-of-the-year list material to being a 
disappointment.

A PROPHET runs 2:30.  The film is in French, Arabic and Corsican, all with 
English subtitles.  It is rated R for "strong violence, sexual content, 
nudity, language and drug material" and would be acceptable for older 
teenagers.

The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, March 5, 2010.  In 
the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the Camera Cinemas.

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