C

Epic in length but little else, “Mesrine” is being released in two parts totaling a bit over four hours. But though chockablock—indeed, overstuffed—with incident, Jean-Francois Richet’s biopic about France’s most famous modern criminal is a small-minded story of a guy who seems to have been, at least from this evidence, little more than a nasty, small-time thug.

The first installment, subtitled “Killer Instinct” from the title of the French book on which it’s based, begins with a brief sequence of Mesrine (Vincent Cassel) and his girlfriend Sylvie Jeanjacquot (Ludivine Sagnier)being ambushed in Paris, Bonnie-and-Clyde style, in 1979. Then it swings back to trace his career from his army service in Algeria, where he’s shown torturing prisoners, to his escape from a Quebec prison and his bloody attempt to break out the other prisoners afterward. Among the episodes treated in this part are Mesrine’s difficult relations with his parents after his return to France, his friendship with petty criminal Paul (Gilles Lellouche), his employment by crime boss Guido (Gerard Depardieu), his marriage to Sofia (Elena Anaya), which ends in separation when he refuses to go straight, his flight to Canada with new girlfriend Schneider, his partnership with separatist Jean-Paul Mercier (Roy Dupuis) in Quebec, his attempt to extract ransom for Georges Deslauriers (Gilbert Sicotte), the elderly gentleman who makes the mistake of hiring him and Jeanne as servants, the duo’s escape to the US and capture in Monument Valley, and his return to imprisonment in Quebec, where he’s brutally treated by guards until he engineers his escape and tries to free the remaining inmates.

As should be clear from this precis, this is a highly episodic treatment that rushes headlong through Mesrine’s early career without pausing very often for any sort of character development or larger context. Presumably we’re meant to sympathize with Mesrine because he was taught brutality by the French army and then viciously treated in the Quebec prison (which he escapes—as he does so often here—with absurd ease), but if so Richet fails utterly, because as played by the preening, smug Cassel, the guy never comes across as anything but a complete creep. What are we to make, for example, of the scene in which Sofia confronts him about staying on the right side of the law and he beats her up, saying when push comes to shove, he’ll always prefer his “friends”—that is, his buddies in crime—to her and their kids? A person as revolting as this you want to see get his just deserts.

To be fair to Richet, you have to respect his obsession with telling the story comprehensively and seeing to the accuracy of the physical details. Emile Ghigo’s production design and Virginie Montel’s costumes impressively capture the changing times and places, and Eric Catelan’s widescreen cinematography does it justice. And though one can quarrel with the decision to go for so episodic approach, Herve Schneid’s editing manages to keep the action reasonably clear.

But why devote such attention to this fellow? If “Mesrine: Killer Instinct” offered any real insight into him, you might think it was worth the trouble. Or if Cassel managed to get under the charcter’s skin, it might be different. (Except for Depardieu, who predictably has some fun giving tics and twitches to Guido, the supporting cast is basically bland and forgettable, so they don’t make up for the deficiency.) As it is, though, by trying to cover everything the picture manages to make nothing—especially Mesrine himself—seem significant or interesting. Perhaps the second part will bring greater enlightenment.