GO FAST

France, 2008, 90 minutes, Colour.
Roschdy Zem, Olivier Gourmet.
Directed by Olivier Van Hoofstadt.

Go Fast is the technical name for the swift delivery of drugs, the distributors using speedboats and fast cars, making it difficult for the police to catch them.

This is a well-made police thriller, using storylines that are very familiar. However, with the fast pace, audiences go along with the characters and action.

The film opens with the work of a special bureau of the French police in surveillance for a diamond robbery. The robbery is shown in some detail, but the focus is on the police surveillance, their equipment, the placing of devices under cars for tracking.

The action then moves to drug crime. Once again, there is surveillance of kids playing in a Paris suburb, which then transforms into the venue for the distribution of drugs. Again there is a shootout and the head of the special squad is killed. He is played by Olivier Gourmet (often in the films of the Dardenne brothers). The undercover agent is played by Roschdy Zem, a standard actor in many French films. He is also a good friend of the wife and son of the dead officer.

When he encounters the dealer who killed his friend, he threatens him. However, he is put in a special squad, trained to go undercover in Morocco to infiltrate the dealers in hashish and cocaine in Northern Africa. The film shows how he does this, the range of criminals, their high life, the fast cars, the boats across to Spain, the Spanish highways, into France. There is again a focus on the equipment used, the surveillance, even to changing the cars of one of the crime groups.

Needless to say there is a discovery, shootout, arrests – and the revelation that one of the drivers is also an undercover agent, a woman who likes competitiveness with her male counterparts.

All in all, interesting to watch – but not memorable.

1. A French police story? The focus on the police and their work, surveillance? The worlds of robberies, drug dealing? Police investigations and undercover work?

2. The Paris settings, the initial robbery in the jeweller’s? The suburbs and the area for drug deals? The contrast with Morocco, the marijuana fields? The stacking and treating of the drugs? The journey to Spain? The mansions in Spain? The highways? Police action, fast driving, shootouts? The musical score?

3. The title, the reference to the methods of distributing the drugs?

4. The focus on Jean-Do? His coordinating the surveillance? Working with his team? His friendship with Marek? The scenes at home, the son and his birthday, the gifts? His working with the drug surveillance? Marek and his listening in, listening to the Arabic? The suspicions of the dealers, the shootout, Jean-Do’s? death?

5. Marek, his participating in the jewel robbery? The surveillance in the car? The police and the attack on the robbers – Marek jumping out the window? The revelation that he was undercover? At the police station, listening in to the Arabic conversations? Hearing Jean- Do’s death? The scenes of Marek with Jean-Do’s? family, the party, the birthday, the gift? His having to tell the family about Jean- Do’s death? His seeing the killer, putting on his mask, threatening him? The consequences of this mistake later?

6. Marek and his being ordered to have a break? The new squad? The Dominicans and their gangs? Distribution? From North Africa? The agents and their discussions? The choice of Marek?

7. The intense training, physical, mental, being woken up in the night? His new identity?

8. Marek and his infiltrating the gang? The visit to Morocco, looking at the drugs, harvesting, threshing? The packing? The transport to Spain? His meeting the drug lords? Mansions in Spain? The various drivers? The plan, his trying to communicate with headquarters? Being caught by the woman driver? Her comments – and a suggestion which was fulfilled that she was also undercover?

9. The driving, the speed on the roads? The surveillance groups going into position? The rivals and their trying to take the drugs? The woman driver and the code? The shootout? The continued journey, the dealer from Paris, his recognising Marek? The warnings? The police, the shootouts, the agent saving Marek? The arrests – and Marek chasing and threatening the dealer from Paris? The arrest?

10. The rather brisk happy ending – and the possibility of romance? Appropriate for this kind of film?