‘The Crimson Rivers’ Runs Coldblooded

“The Crimson Rivers” shows that Mathieu Kassovitz, one of France’s most audacious young filmmakers--and actors--can go out and make a movie as big and bad as one of Hollywood’s worst.

After “Assassins,” in which Kassovitz explored the effects of violence in the media, and “Hate,” which delved into racial tensions affecting housing-project youths, Kassovitz now has made a notably grisly, derivative and increasingly preposterous thriller set in a gloomy, vast university nestled high in the mountains of Grenoble.

Local avalanche expert Fanny Ferreira (Nadia Fares) reports the discovery of a horribly mutilated corpse on the icy slopes of a vast, high mountain looming over the University of Gueron. It is the body of a university library worker, a conscientious staffer with no known enemies. His remains look worse than those of the Black Dahlia did in the ‘40s, but the camera lingers until a sense of morbidity sets in.

Arriving on the scene from Paris is legendary investigator Pierre Niemans (Jean Reno), who is soon told by a local ophthalmologist that the institution that prides itself on turning out “the future Bill Gates” is an inbred community whose offspring are showing disturbing genetic disorders and that these maladies are somehow spreading to the children of the locals outside the university.

The university’s gloomy gray main structure is a grandiose poured-concrete pile that looks as if it had been designed by Albert Speer. This is an instance of the rightness of first impressions because it becomes clear that the university is dedicated to creating a master race, but the scheme has developed a hitch, to say the least.

Kassovitz’s script is a claptrap affair in which plot developments alternate between the predictable and the arbitrary. Much exceedingly violent foolishness ensues, with a feisty young cop (Vincent Cassel) teaming with old pro Niemans in pursuit of a clearly deranged killer who strikes again and again, culminating in an inevitable showdown on the snowy slopes.

Not even the strong, reflective, world-weary presence of Reno or Cassel’s energy can make a dent in a movie in which suspense and tension dissipate quickly, with action sequences not spectacular enough to compensate. All that’s left is gratuitous gore.

* MPAA rating: R, for violence/grisly images and language. Times guidelines: The violence and gore are extreme and entirely unsuitable for children.

‘The Crimson Rivers’

Jean Reno: Pierre Niemans

Vincent Cassel: Max Kerkerian

Jean-Pierre Cassel: Dr. Bernard Cherneze

Dominique Sanda: Sister Andree

A TriStar release of a co-production of Legende Enterprises, Gaumont, TF1 Films Production and Canal Plus. Director Mathieu Kassovitz. Producer Alain Goldman. Screenplay Jean-Christophe Grange and Kassovitz; based on the novel by Grange. Cinematographer Thierry Arbogast. Editor Maryline Monthieux. Music Bruno Coulais. Set manager Thierry Flamand. In French, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 46 minutes.

At selected theaters.