Scribe

Thomas Kruithof's teasing debut is typical of thrillers where viewers are asked to take a convoluted situation at face value. Two years after suffering a booze-induced breakdown, out-of-work accountant François Cluzet leaps at a job transcribing phone messages on an electric typewriter. A less desperate man might have questioned the method of his hiring by the shadowy Denis Podalydès or the Spartan nature of his workplace. But Cluzet remains unsuspicious, even after go-between Simon Abkarian demands an incriminating tape and coerces him into a break-in. Echoes of Hitchcockian everyman sagas and post-Watergate conspiracy thrillers reverberate around the increasingly contrived storyline, but Kruithof and co-writer Yann Gozlan manage to stay the right side of plausibility, as the obsessive-compulsive Cluzet sinks further out of his depth. Thierry François's interiors, Alex Lamarque's camerawork and Grégoire Auger's score all sustain the noir-like suspense. However, the flaws would be more noticeable without the excellent Cluzet.