There have been many French thrillers over the years, many of which have been picked up by the Walter Presents team. This latest one – known as Jugée Coupable in France – is a worthy addition to the roster.
If you want to avoid all spoilers, stop reading now.
It’s an intriguing tale of Lola Brémont, who travels to Hôtel des Roches Blanches in the beautiful town of Vannes for a job interview. But when she arrives, the owners know nothing about an interview and have no vacancies. Someone has lured her to the town – but why?
Before she returns to Bordeaux, she visits a café and receives a mysterious text message, from the same person who messaged her about the interview that never was, suggesting she take a look at the paper. In it, she discovers a story marking the 25th anniversary of the unsolved murder of Manon Jouve, a local woman who died on the cliff rocks a quarter of a century ago. The resemblance between Lola and Manon is remarkable, which explains why people in town have been giving her funny looks ever since she arrived.
Lola is befriended by the café owner, Gaëlle, who puts her in touch with the man who wrote the article, who is also the man who has been sending Lola the messages. When Lola visits his home, she finds him dying on the floor having been stabbed.
Lola discovers from the police that Manon was probably her mother – a probability made even stronger when she sees a photograph of Manon wearing the same necklace that Lola currently owns. And apparently Manon had “disappeared” for a year before her murder, which would explain why no-one knew she was pregnant.
‘Presumed Guilty’ is very pleasing on the eye. Much use is made of drones for some fabulous ariel shots of the French coast, which looks stunning – particularly on a wet December day in London as I write this. And the cast – Garance Thénault who plays both Lola and Manon, Pierre-Yves Bon who plays the police captain, and Aurélie Vaneck who plays the café owner – all have the healthy good looks one associates with sophisticated well-heeled Europeans. It’s all proper eye-candy stuff.
It’s early days, but the basic premiss of a young woman avenging the death of her mother – someone she hadn’t even known existed – is interesting. There are some dubious plot twists that leave you head-scratching, but overall, the good outweighs the not-so-good. You definitely find yourself rooting for Lola as she tries to come to terms with the upheaval in her life that this fake interview has delivered. The associated cast of characters all seem to have hidden secrets that add to the complexity of the storyline.
There isn’t much new or original with ‘Presumed Guilty’. But it’s well worthy of your attention if you enjoy the idea of immersing yourself in some sunny coastal French crime drama – and who could blame you?
Walter Presents: ‘Presumed Guilty’ is launches on Channel 4 tonight (10th December) at 11pm. The full boxset is available on Walter Presents via C4 Steaming now.
