Rating: R
Genre:
Thriller
Theatrical Release: 12/12/2003(USA
Release Date: 04/27/2004
SubTitles: English
Dubbed: English
Sound: DD5.1
Run Time: 119 Minutes
Flags: Violence, Adult Situations
Distributor/Studio: Columbia TriStar
A man who has been able to avoid the consequences of his actions for nearly 50 years suddenly finds he must answer pursuers on both sides of the law in this
drama, based on the novel by
Brian Moore and inspired by a true story. After France fell to German occupation during World War II, the Nazi-controlled Vichy government established a law-enforcement group known as the Milice, who were under the direct control of Nazi authorities. In 1944,
Pierre Brossard (
George Williams) is one of a handful of Milice officers who round up and execute seven Jewish resistance members in the village of Dombey. After the liberation of France,
Brossard is tried and convicted for his crimes, but he manages to escape capture, and years later is pardoned. In 1992,
Brossard (now played by
Michael Caine) is an elderly man living a quiet life in Provence and modestly supported by fellow veterans of the Vichy regime when he's ambushed and nearly killed by a man whom he learns was a hired killer.
Brossard discovers this is hardly his only problem; new legislation will allow Vichy-era war criminals who escaped punishment to be charged and tried again, and
Anne Marie Livi (
Tilda Swinton), a bright and aggressive French prosecutor, has joined forces with
Col. Roux (
Jeremy Northam) to bring
Brossard, among others, to justice. While
Brossard is still being clandestinely assisted by church officials and Vichy sympathizers, he must go on the run to avoid capture, and finds himself hiding from the French police as well as a cadre of underground assassins, whose alliances and purposes are frustratingly unclear.
The Statement also stars
Charlotte Rampling,
Alan Bates, and
Frank Finlay.
~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
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