A PROPHET (Jacques Audiard, 2009)

Riding on the waves of Cannes buzz and even an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language film, Jacques Audiard's A Prophet promised to be a sweeping prison epic.

Well does it?

Yeah, I'd say it does.

While the flick has been hyped as being a masterpiece for the director and an overall masterfully made picture, I didn't like it as much as everyone else in the film community did, but I did like it a whole lot.

The film tells the tale of Malik El Djebena (Tahar Rahim), a French Arab who is sent to prison. There, he befriends members of the Corsican mafia, particularly their leader, César Luciani (Niels Arestrup). Malik soon enough helps them with their business, and quickly rises the ranks within the group, and before you know it the dude's a mafia kingpin while still in prison. Pret-tay, pret-tay, pret-tay cool.

While sequences in the film were better than anything I saw in another rise-the-crime-ladder film, Brian De Palma's overrated shlock Scarface, I feel like the film has been a victim of being a little too overhyped. While the movie was really good, I just didn't think it was THAT good, y'know what I mean? I think maybe some of it stems from the fact that I had just seen Steve McQueen's Hunger, which is another prison film, and was just so completely blown away by it that I felt it would be hard to top that.

Having said that, the film does provide some amazing sequences, and I'm mostly referring to the graphic scene of Malik's first murder. It's so unnerving that it made me squirm violently in my seat, as I had a similar reaction to a scene in Michael Haneke's Caché. If you know what I'm talking about don't give it away! I know how all five of you who read this blog love to comment!

I think in the end I need to see A Prophet for a second time. I did like the film, but I feel like there is a lot more to be explored within here.

BOTTOM LINE: A Prophet is a worthwhile film with some fantastic sequences, but may be suffering from Dr. Avatar's diagnosis of overhype.