Number One (2017)
7/10
Corporate Knife-Fight
18 April 2018
The excellent Emmanuelle Devos here plays a top executive in a major energy / construction firm, who is recruited to become a candidate for the top job in the national water company, one of France's prestigious Top 40 companies. The campaign is very nasty, with plenty of corporate backstabbing, intrigue, and dirty deals.

Since she would be the first woman CEO of such a company in France, she automatically inherits the enthusiastic support of a major feminist group, which has connections and some pull. The film interestingly hints that Devos' character is far more interested in what she can do in the job than in gender politics, but she plays the cards she is dealt.

The film does a very good job of demonstrating why Devos' character is very good at her current job. She works very hard, knows the technical stuff, and can party with her Chinese clients in Mandarin, even singing sentimental Chinese songs with them.

The story of the campaign for the new job is unfortunately a bit murky at times, but the main maneuvers are clear enough. And the main bad guys, her rival -- slick and charming and lizard-like -- and his sleazy sidekick, are very well portrayed slimeballs, not the usual one dimensional caricatures.
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