Back in Crime

"The Other Life of Richard Kemp"? . . . ye-es, but not exactly. The deadpan title works in French, but in English it's a bit of a blank; something else must be found, but the distributors have come up with "Back in Crime," suggesting a banal Time-Cop movie. "L'autre vie" is something else entirely - the time travel serves as an uncanny portal: Chief Inspector Richard Kemp is thrown back twenty years, to when he was a lone wolf detective, over-proud of his rep as best on the force, Co-existing in 1989, the older Kemp is afraid to approach the younger - he spies on himself, and works secretly in parallel to undo the mistakes that let a killer get away. And meanwhile the older Kemp is falling in love with the psychologist he first met on the last day of his first life. A "rebirth through water" motif might be a nod to De Palma's "Femme Fatale"; and the seductive camera movements and layered compositions also hint that the writer-director Germinal Alvarez has learned from his great precedent. But Alvarez brings out a triste atmosphere that's all his own. Best romantic thriller I've seen in a long time.