The Ax

Year: 2005

Actors: John Landis, Romain Gavras, Karin Viard, José Garcia

Duration: 117 min

Bruno Davert (José Garcia) is a highly-qualified chemist. After working for fifteen years for a paper company, improving products and saving money to shareholders, the company lets 600 workers go before outsourcing many of the jobs. The result for the company is a 16% increase in dividends to shareholders. Two years afterwards, Davert is still jobless. The only profitable company in his sector is Arcadia, but joining that company is impossible for him. Suddenly, he thinks of a way of getting rid of his competition. He offers a fake job - the kind of job he would apply for - on the job section of a newspaper and that way he gets dozens of curricula vitae. The person who occupies the job he'd like to have is like him: middle-aged, balding, a bit overweight; but he always smiles and projects a successful image. His name is Raymond Machafer (Oliver Gourmet). Bruno selects the five curricula which are most likely to get the job, and he decides to eliminate them all.His wife, Marlène (Karin Viard) tries to be as supportive as she can. She holds two part-time jobs which cannot pay for all their bills, so that their teenage children Maxime (Geordy Monfils) and Betty (Christa Theret), find some things lacking, for example the satellite TV. Bruno is jealous of Marlène's boss (Hervé Pauchon), always smiling, and he's afraid that he will make a pass at her sooner or later. Bruno goes to the basement where there are some military artifacts from back when his father fought in the WWII. He takes a gun and some bullets, and learns to shoot in the woods nearby.His first killing spree happens in Belgium. Every time he shoots, his arm hurts. Bruno kills the first applicant, Birch (Marc Legein) when he leaves home to pick up his mail. Nobody has a clue that he has done anything strange. The only thing which Marlène notices is that he is more nervous than usual, but she blames his jobless situation. She notices that he has light up the chimney before time, and that he has got somebody else's CV, but he just dismisses it as that he has prepared a new resume and CV.He goes to a job interview. The HR manager, Iris Thompson (Olga Grumberg) asks him some tough questions. Bruno gets cocky, tells the truth about what he feels, so that he realizes he has destroyed all his possibilities of getting the job.The second time that he kills somebody he has problems in finding the right moment. A female biker (Luce Bouchel) looks at him in a weird way. When he comes to that location a second time, the weird woman shouts and threatens him, as she thinks he is the pervert who is harassing her daughter. She finds out about Bruno's gun, so Bruno has to kill her. Her husband - which is his intended victim - goes out to the garden when he hears the shooting, and Bruno kills him. Later on, the case appears on the news. Judy Rick (Marie Kremer) accuses the man who harassed her of killing both her parents, whom she was living with. Bruno repents, and thinks that he has to give himself up, because he can't allow an innocent person to pay for his crimes, but the suspect jumps out of a window. He dismisses his initial intentions.He finds another applicant working at a small restaurant. He's trying to come back to the paper industry, and is working as a chef in the meantime. Bruno tries to kill him when he leaves his job, but he can't find the right moment. At last, he runs over him accidentally.After the incident, Bruno has to take the car to the garage. The workman (Jean-Pierre Gos) talks to him concerning how his wife has also been made redundant after 11 years at the local hospital. The workman is afraid of losing his job as well, but he says that he's going to shoot himself in front of his bosses if that moment finally arrives.Marlène insists in trying a marriage counselor, Quinlan Longus (Dieudoné Kabongo Bashila), in order to help them out. Bruno has to express feelings of loss, threat and anger. Marlène will support him through thick and thin if he changes his ways a little bit.Maxime is caught red-handed stealing videos and video games. Maxime remains in jail overnight and police are expected to come search the house at six in the morning. Bruno and Marlène argue it was Maxime's first time, but when they are back home, they pressure Betty into telling them where Maxime's loot is hidden - in a double wall in his wardrobe. Bruno throws away three whole rubbish bags of stolen goods, so when the police arrive there is nothing to hide. That way, Maxime gets out of his predicament lightly. Different police officers (Michel Carcan, Serge Larivière) appear later on to question Bruno about the deaths of paper workers. He asks for protection, but there is no staff to protect everybody who may be threatened by a mysterious psychopath who is killing paper industry workers with an old Nazi gun. Inspector Otto Zirner (Robert Borremans) even makes a comment about old wartime bullets having been used in the murders and the possibility of the gun exploding every time it is used. Marlène thinks it's further questioning concerning Maxime's illegal activities.Bruno throws the gun and the remaining bullets in the river.A new applicant appears. Gérard Hutchinson (Ulrich Tukur) is working, which is going to be a great asset when applying for a job. Bruno wants to get rid of him, but he realizes he can't use the gun, so takes a kitchen knife. Bruno calls him to a restaurant with the pretense of a job interview, and then he follows him: Gérard works in a menswear clothes shop. Gérard talks to him, and says that he should get used to his new job, as after five years he may have lost his touch with the paper industry, and also mentions that a police officer told him about a psycho who is killing paper industry workers. Bruno has to hide the huge knife from him, but he finally doesn't kill him, at least at that moment. Bruno will decide to leave him alone, as Gérard seems to be content with his present job, and no longer willing to try applying for the paper industry jobs.Bruno breaks into Raymond Machafer (Oliver Gourmet)'s home, but as he arrives accompanied by a woman, he can't kill him at that moment either. Bruno tries again the next night but falls sleep at the home of his would-be victim, and dreams he's already working for Arcadia and is showing some people around. Raymond appears, completely drunk, and believes his story that the door was aghast and that he entered in order to ask him some questions about the possibility of working for Arcadia. Raymond is afraid of losing his job, as some positions are being outsourced as well. Raymond points a gun of his at Bruno, but he convinces him and they both end up drinking even more. When Raymond is completely passed out, Bruno opens the gas hoping Raymond would suffocate. While Bruno is watching from his car Raymond suddenly wakes up, but luckily for Bruno, first thing he does is light a cigarette, blowing himself up to death.Back home, Bruno does some exercise while waiting for an Arcadia phone call. Finally, Anne Futerman from Arcadia sends him an e-mail asking to reply back in 24 hours. A police officer visits Bruno to tell him that Gérard has committed suicide. They think he was the one who killed all the paper industry workers, and the police officers want to calm Bruno down, as there is no danger anymore.Bruno is at the Arcadia restaurant. A professionally dressed woman (Vanessa Larré) enters and sits at the bar. She is looking at Bruno intently and is seemingly as obsessed with him as he was with the other applicants before.

Genre: Action   Comedy   Crime   Drama   Thriller