Film Review – Ad Vitam

Ad Vitam
The title of Ad Vitam (2025) is a Latin phrase meaning “For Life.” A not-so-subtle metaphor for a story in which characters fight to save the lives of others and themselves. On paper, this French action thriller has all the trappings we are familiar with: A highly skilled ex-officer, along with his pregnant wife, are attacked in their home by a shadowy group of mercenaries. She gets kidnapped while he is left bloody and bruised. In desperation, our protagonist uses all his resources and connections to save his family as well as uncover the schemers that targeted him in the first place. Seems to be the quintessential vehicle for the likes of Liam Neeson or Jason Statham, no?
Unfortunately, despite following a very familiar path, the film simply doesn’t have the juice to ramp up the tension. Director Rodolphe Lauga (who cowrites with Guillaume Canet and David Corona) crafted a story that is a mish mash of various ideas that never coalesce into a satisfying whole. There are too many ingredients in the pot. At any certain point, this could be a dramatic character study, an edge-of-your-seat actioner, a romantic drama, a revenge tale, etc. The problem is that it isn’t a good version of any of those genres. It sits in this weird middle ground where it never really commits to any specific tone or style. Posters and trailers suggest something along the lines of Taken (2008) or John Wick (2014), but in execution it’s neither. This is an action film in desperate need of an identity.

It’s starts off with a bang. Franck (Canet) is an ex-member of the elite French police force GIGN. After a tragic accident occurs under his watch, Franck gets removed from his post and finds a job doing restoration work for old historical buildings. Franck met his wife Leo (Stéphane Caillard) while both were in training. Now the two share a home and are preparing for a baby. Of course, all this gets pushed aside once the aforementioned kidnapping takes place. However, once the opening action scene ends, the narrative tosses us for a loop – going on a very lengthy flashback where we see Franck, Leo, and their friends all entering GIGN training, and tracing their lives all the way back to the present.
Lauga and his team take a big gamble with the plot structure. Unfortunately, that decision slams the brakes on all the storytelling momentum. Because they begin with such a kinetic opening, doubling back to tell Franck and Leo’s background stories feels like unnecessary filler. We know where they will be once time catches up to the here and now. That imbalance is representative of the entire film. There are pieces of better movies all jammed together here, none of which amount to anything substantial. There’s talk of Franck and his complicated feelings toward his father, but that goes nowhere. Franck’s reluctance to be assertive about his life and relationship with Leo is brought up and dropped immediately. There’s a bit about a hidden conspiracy involving multiple agencies setting their sights on Franck, but it ends up being just a long explanation for why there are assassins going after him. We also get discussions over whether having a baby would make Franck a more resilient person. With all these themes swirling around us, we’re left thinking, “Who cares?”
I don’t mind an action film that takes its time. For Den of Thieves 2: Pantera (2025), I gave it a positive review because of its patience and methodical pacing. Ad Vitam is similar in that in pushes all the splashy moments into the back end, but everything leading up to it is simply not interesting enough to keep us engaged. Guillaume Canet is a fine enough actor, but he inhabits Franck with such an understated delivery that we never sense the fear and anxiety that should exist within him. The makeup and costuming do a good job of showing how stress has taken a toll, but his mindset remains skin deep. For a guy who has gone through so much trauma – physically and mentally – he just seems a little…unbothered.

Where Canet’s performance remains grounded, gritty and realistic, the action gets increasingly more absurd. Take for example the sequence where Franck fights off an entire group of enemies, all of whom are armed. Instead of shooting at him from a distance, they each attack him up close, one by one, so that he can disarm them. The choreography is reminiscent of old martial art films, where dozens of soldiers will wait patiently for their turn to strike. Apparently, none of Franck’s would-be killers realized that they don’t have to stand in line to take one person down! The ridiculousness continues later, where a big chase sequence features Franck on a paraglider following a line of vehicles, one of whom carries Leo as well as his close friend, Ben (Nassim Lyes). The chase goes up and down the French countryside, taking time to swerve into none other than Versailles! Imagine being a tourist taking pictures of that beautiful estate, only to see a row of cars and a paraglider whiz by. Talk about a photo op!
Ultimately, the biggest failing of Ad Vitam is that it reminds us too much of other movies like it. This is an action picture that feels painted by numbers, where every twist and turn feels mechanical. There’s just not much excitement or intrigue going on here. One could say that this is the type of flick to watch while doing laundry or while on a plane ride. But by those standards, you could probably still do better.