The legendary French detective Maigret returns - this time with controversial acting veteran Gérard Depardieu playing a role that seems tailor-made for him.
Before Rowan Atkinson and Michael Gambon took over Jules Maigret's famous pipe and raincoat, there was the rumpled Rupert Davies, with Ewan Solon as his phlegmatic Kiwi sidekick Sergeant Lucas Lucas.
The French refer to their crime stories, not so much as "whodunits" or even "murder mysteries", but as 'policiers' or procedurals.
Not for Maigret the brilliant inspiration or clues that no-one else has spotted. It's all police work as he trudges from one bit of evidence to the next.
Also, unlike Hercule Poirot or Sherlock Holmes, Maigret is allowed a homelife.
The placid Madame Maigret seems as bourgeois as her husband but that doesn't mean stupid.
She's patient and supportive but not afraid to ask questions, and she doesn't take it personally when Jules won't - or can't - answer them.
The murdered girl has to be identified, and that means finding out why so many of her details have been covered up.
And asking questions is Maigret's speciality.
How do you get a suspect to talk, asks one nervous potential suspect? I just listen, says Maigret, and already we know he's several steps ahead of his potential prey.
It's been a while since we've seen Gérard Depardieu on our screen here, though he's been busy in France despite a string of recent scandals.
He's still a Russian citizen, I believe, after falling out with the French tax department.
Clearly not the sort of thing Maigret would do…
At the heart of this Maigret tale is the detective's empathy with the dead girl.
He has reasons to take this case personally, and also finds himself getting close to Betty, another young woman who recently arrived from the country and is in danger of meeting the same fate as Louise.
Say what you like about Depardieu, he's still brilliant in this sort of role, and under the direction of veteran director Patrice Leconte shows why Jules Maigret such a well-loved character in France.
Maigret is film gris rather than film-noir perhaps - grey, overcast and step by step coming to the right conclusion.
