Anthony Zimmer is a 2005 French romantic thriller film written and directed by Jérôme Salle and starring Sophie Marceau, Yvan Attal, and Sami Frey.
Set mainly in southern France, the film is about a highly intelligent criminal—pursued by international police and the Russian mafia—whose extensive plastic surgery makes him unrecognizable, even to his girlfriend, who enlists the help of an unsuspecting stranger on a train.
Anthony Zimmer was released on 27 April 2005 in France, and was critically well received—described as "better than average" by Variety,[3] "a good, strong story with a final twist well told" by Urban Cinefile,[4] and "an especially well-made Hitchcock-style odyssey" by Shadows on the Wall.
One standout detective named Akerman is getting close to catching the criminal mastermind; he knows that Zimmer will risk everything to reunite with the lover he left behind, Chiara Manzoni, who has not seen him since his plastic surgery.
Anticipating a reunion with Zimmer, Chiara arrives at a restaurant, where she receives a message from her boyfriend, telling her to "pick up" a stranger whose general appearance matches his own in order to mislead his pursuers.
Chiara boards a TGV high-speed train and chooses François Taillandier, a bland 38-year-old translator who reads detective novels and whose wife left him over six months ago.
Driss believes François' story after seeing a bullet hole in the hotel room, which is now occupied by members of the White Collar Barons and their leader, Nassaiev.
He opens a secret safe and takes out a notebook filled with his banking information, and leaves it by the front door for Akerman—his way of giving up his life of crime for the woman he loves.
"[3] In his review on the DVD Talk website, Svet Atanasov called Anthony Zimmer a "modest French production" that "tiptoes somewhere on the verge between being a sugary melodrama and an action-packed nailbiter with plenty of unexpected twists".
[4] In their review on the Get the Big Picture website, the Three Abiding Dudes also applauded the performances of Marceau and Attal, noting the chemistry between the two actors is a key reason for the film's success.
[5] Cline concludes: This polished and seductive style keeps the audience on its toes; it's that breathlessly enjoyable film in which we never tire of trying to second-guess the characters, figure out the central mystery or worry about how this ill-matched couple can get together in the end ...
[4] The film was remade under the title The Tourist, which was directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck and starred Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie, Paul Bettany, and Timothy Dalton.