Fans of Jean Reno likely saw the trailer for Cold Blood and had flashbacks to Léon: The Professional. A cold blooded assassin doing his thing. Unfortunately, Reno playing an assassin is just about the only similarity between the two films. Cold Blood is billed as an action/thriller, yet offers almost no action and even fewer thrills. The film meanders so much, filling time and space aimlessly to eventually have what it mistakenly thinks are reveals and a thrilling climax.
Henry (Reno) lives alone in isolation as a retired assassin. When Melody (Sarah Lind) gets in a snowmobile accident, she crawls and finds herself at Henry’s front door. Henry takes her in, and begins nursing her back to health. They develop a complicated relationship that we soon learn may put his life in danger. At the same time, a cop named Kappa (Joe Anderson) continues to investigate Henry’s last kill (although it’s honestly not quite clear how he’s connected) and finds himself intertwined in a larger web of mystery.
Cold Blood could have had a good story somewhere along the way. Rather than give viewers any sort of clarity on what the story they’re watching is about, writer and director Frédéric Petitjean opts to leave everything a mystery, including why this movie was made. The script itself is uninspired and dialogue sounds so awkward throughout. It makes it difficult for the two talented leads to bring any substance to empty shells of characters. Cold Blood is lifeless from the opening moments and doesn’t live up to being an action movie or thriller.
Confuses basic plot for plot twists
The most obvious issue with Cold Blood is that instead of giving the viewer a basic overview of what the actual story is, they slowly reveal basic information as twists. Character’s names, roles, motivations and relations to each other are all treated as high value twists and moments of clarity for the viewer rather than essential information.
The film opens in the middle of the story before jumping back in time 10 months. For some films, this makes sense, but Cold Blood is not one. It was incredibly confusing and would have been much clearer had it just been shown in chronological order. In fact, for the first 45 minutes of the film I had no idea how Sarah Lind’s character had any part to play in the story at all.
An uninspired script with lackluster dialogue
As much as you can try to like a film, sometimes it just continuously shoots itself in the foot. Cold Blood is a prime example. It’s impossible to get behind when so many scenes serve little to no purpose.
A scene features a few lines of moody dialogue at the cabin with Henry and Melody before a cut to a police station with Kappa. He expresses frustration without doing any actual police work, and then we cut back to the cabin with more moody dialogue. The first 3/4 of this film continues like this and it feels as if nothing is happening and nothing is moving forwards. I can see how Petitjean saw this as a slow burn, but in reality it’s just time filling.
Dialogue also holds Cold Blood back. Kappa and his partner are cliché cops that would fit in on a network drama. They talk about a killer “following the manual” to show up at their victims funeral. Other random lines to fill time include, “I know your office only has a single corridor.” One would assume that would come back to be important. It does not. Far too many scenes end up being inconsequential.
Solid craft that can’t quite cover up the cracks
Cold Blood uses the beautiful settings to its advantage. The cinematography uses the gorgeous winter forrest to its advantage and create a unique backdrop for an assassin to play in. The camera work shows off the sterile, heartless and cold nature of winter – perfect for the story the film is trying to tell. City scenes and especially the police station set pieces feel a little less wondrous and expected, but aren’t a huge drawback for the film.
You feel for the actors. There’s no doubt Jean Reno is talented. We’ve seen it before. Sarah Lind shows hints of a lot of talent as well – her character is certainly the most compelling, and the only one with a character arc. Both of their characters are underdeveloped still, and you can see they did the best with what they had. Reno is as cold and precise as ever and Lind harnesses a quiet ferocity waiting to explode. You only wish they were given more to work with.
Cold Blood: Dead on arrival
Jean Reno and Sarah Lind did the best they could with Cold Blood. Hopefully they each got a good pay day, because the film itself is not worth the 90 minute watch. It’s directionless for much of the film, and takes too long to reveal what is actually happening. When it does start to make sense, it’s still not totally clear and we’re left with so many unanswered questions. An uninspired script and meaningless dialogue fill space while the viewer hopes for one of Henry’s ice bullets to the head.
Have you seen Cold Blood? What did you think? Sound off in the comments.
Cold Blood was released on VOD on July 5.
Does content like this matter to you?
Become a Member and support film journalism. Unlock access to all of Film Inquiry`s great articles. Join a community of like-minded readers who are passionate about cinema - get access to our private members Network, give back to independent filmmakers, and more.