Crime out of joint

>> Rémy Girard plays a real-life Montreal
underworld legend in the fascinating
but confusing Le Piège américain

by MALCOLM FRASER

As far as pedigrees go, Le Piège américain has a team of heavy hitters. Director Charles Binamé previously helmed such Quebec crowd-pleasers as the Maurice Richard biopic and the melodramatic period piece Séraphin.

Fabienne Larouche (who co-produced and co-wrote the film with Michel Trudeau) is the acclaimed creator and screenwriter of local TV favourites from Lance et compte to Fortier and Music Hall. And star Rémy Girard hardly needs introducing; from Les Invasions barbares to Les Bougons and Les Boys, he’s practically the patron saint of Quebec moving images.

Here, he stars as Lucien Rivard, a real-life character who repped for Montreal in the international underworld in the ’50s and ’60s. The filmmakers paint Rivard as a kind of criminal Forrest Gump, a minor but key player in the Cuban revolution, the Kennedy assassination, J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI stings and the USA’s nascent involvement in Vietnam.

From Havana to New Orleans, Indonesia and back to Montreal, as portrayed here, he operated on the margins of these key historical events—sometimes as a player, other times being played by the complex, shady forces in which government and organized crime overlap.

For anyone interested in conspiracies, covert ops and shadow histories, the tale is fascinating; I’d never heard of Rivard and was left curious to know more (not to mention how much is accurate). Girard is, as always, a compelling screen presence, and he’s backed up by an equally solid cast, including French character actor Gérard Darmon as a suave gun-runner, Canadian thespian Colm Feore as a rogue FBI agent and Janet Lane as a junkie prostitute and companion of Jack Ruby.

The film is gorgeously shot, taking full advantage of the inherent beauty of its locales and time period. But Binamé isn’t a subtle director, nor is he above throwing in the odd cliché, and the film’s style has a flashy, random feel. As for the storyline, it’s so packed with characters and complicated subplots that even viewers with basic knowledge of the subject may find themselves struggling to keep up.

The result is like an Oliver Stone film without the madcap attitude—a fun ride, full of intriguing notions, but ultimately more muddling than illuminating.

Le Piège américain opens
this Friday, May 16

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