
“Ad Vitam” is Guillaume Canet's one-man action show
The Netflix opus follows the platform's favorite thread, this time with a French twist
January 13th, 2025
There is one thing you absolutely cannot reproach Ad Vitam, the new action movie on Netflix starring Guillaume Canet, and that is its refusal to hold back, no matter the cost. Just five minutes into the movie, we already know the profession of the protagonist Franck Lazarev, that his partner is pregnant, that someone has attempted to break into their apartment twice in a week, and that someone is trying to kill him. Naturally, at this pace, by the ten-minute mark, the events and plot twists have doubled: we find out Franck has a secret, his house is invaded by a group of masked men, and he must try to defend himself while putting the life of his unborn child’s mother in danger. This is how the entire movie proceeds, with every scene leading exactly where the story intends. Straightforward, direct, and clean. Just like the film directed by Rodolphe Lauga, co-written with David Corona and its lead actor.
A movie that completely revolves around Canet, who, aside from a brief moment in a motorcycle sequence, fully immerses himself in the role of a former member of the French Gendarmerie, dismissed from duty after a failed operation. This event drastically altered the course of his life, separating him from the work he had trained for his entire existence, and leaving him consumed by guilt over the death of one of his teammates, who was also one of his closest friends. It is his quest for justice for this murder and his desire to ease the pain of having caused it that drive him to uncover the shady details of a crime seemingly involving none other than the State itself. Franck thus becomes the number one enemy of French diplomacy, cornered as he pursues a personal justice that demands further grueling sacrifices.
Despite the events and the backstory of the characters in Ad Vitam spanning a decade, the movie flows seamlessly, connecting moments and scenes even when time jumps are necessary. The narrative is not linear, which is the only unusual feature of a film otherwise stripped of embellishments or frills. A tense, sharp action movie that risks feeling sterile at times but, like its protagonist, has a mission to accomplish and does so with a succinctness and clarity often lacking in contemporary cinema. A film tailor-made for Netflix, living and thriving within its frame as a quick, digestible piece of entertainment that focuses all its attention—and that of the audience—on the one-man show of one of Europe’s most versatile and beloved actors.
Just last year, Canet portrayed King Louis XVI alongside Marie Antoinette in the Italo-French co-production Le Déluge, a traitor in the crime thriller Breaking Point, and the year before, an actor in crisis haunted by old memories in Stéphane Brizé’s arthouse film Les occasions de l’amour. This time, in Ad Vitam, he leaps and jumps from buildings, fights as if his life depends on it (and it does in the movie), escapes using strange paragliders, and demonstrates physical prowess and confidence that make his role as Franck agile and credible. Netflix thus continues its streak of action productions, delivering a worthy, moderate, yet enjoyable result. Less explosive than the most recent 2024 case in the same genre, Rebel Ridge, but one that successfully completes its mission.