Guess who let the wolves out

Empire of the Wolves, the adaptation of Jean Christophe Grange's novel of the same name, is an addition to the genre in which a film's denouement comes only after apparently disparate, unconnected storylines take the viewer on a journey of mind-boggling situations that then collide in a big bang.

Set in Paris, Empire of the Wolves sees Anna, who is losing her mind, pick a psychiatrist at random in the hope of fixing her leaking memory. At the same time a youthful policeman played by Jocelyn Quivrin seeks the help of his erstwhile colleague, Schiffer, to clear up a series of gruesome killings of Turkish seamstresses. This good-cop-bad-cop team embark on some detective work when luckily enough Anna reveals she is of Turkish descent and the hand of a Turkish extremist group is uncovered in the murders.

This adaptation of a well-received book does not sit well with some movie pundits. "Although this is the kind of movie where a flying dagger pierces a man's throat as he's about to reveal a crucial name, venture takes itself way too seriously to be fun," writes Lisa Nesselson in Variety.

However, members of the viewing public are less critical of the film. "Another great action/thriller from France. A little bit Bourne Identity, a little bit Carlitos Way ... a glimpse of From Dusk Till Dawn and Silence of the Lambs and you have a pretty entertaining 128 mins at your local cinema," a reviewer on the

International Movie Database Web site wrote.