La mécanique de l'ombre aka Scribe aka The Eavesdropper aka The Mechanic of the Shadow (2016)

I was a bit confused about which of the two English titles to use for this film with Google insisting that it was called The Eavesdropper - but the subtitle of the film's title card disagrees, so it appears that I watched something called Scribe instead. Although the literal translation of the French title should be something like The Mechanics of the Shadow/Shade (or possibly, to use what I imagine the closest UK-English equivalent to be, The Mechanics of the Spook (i.e. spy for American-English readers)).

Having seen the movie, I'm not entirely sure what the point of it was. The basic plot is that an accountant, (presumably) fired from his job because he has a drinking problem, is given a job transcribing tapes of various wiretaps. One thing leads to another and he's trying to extricate himself from a situation where he's being played by two different sides, while falling in love with a woman he's helping from his AA (the alcohol one, not the motoring organisation) support group.

As the title suggests, this is a French film.

The Americans do this so much better. As do the Brits.

To be fair, so do the French.

For what purports to be a political thriller, it doesn't feel very political or very thrilling. There's a neat little turn in the final act, which sort of plays in with the whole listening-in theme, but I'm not sure if that was intentional or accidental. Generally the story feels a little cobbled together, the moments of it quite insignificant, and the final denouement is something of a 'So what?'

Perhaps being French would have helped. But somehow I doubt it.

What the film did remind me as I was watching it were that there are plenty of other eavesdropping thrillers that deal with their subject matter so much better - The Secret Lives of Others, The Conversation, Enemy of the State - and I think I'd have found more value in watching one of those again instead.