The commissaire Jules Maigret and his men are in charge of the investigation and seek to uncover the young woman's identity.

[6] The project was first announced by director-screenwriter Patrice Leconte in March 2019,[7] under the title Maigret et la jeune morte,[8] an adaptation of the Georges Simenon novel of the same name.

On the contrary, Leconte wanted to "absolutely avoid" replicating the Maigret television series starring Bruno Cremer.

Leconte explained, "Sometimes external – the pipe, the hat – we wanted an intimate Maigret, driven by complex feelings, a view of the world.

[18] For its second week of release, Maigret finished in the French box office chart at fourth place with 129,947 admissions (389,958 cumulative).

[20] Maigret received an average rating of 3.7 out of 5 stars on the French website AlloCiné, based on 29 reviews.

Adrien Gombeaud of Les Echos wrote, "A sumptuous detective adaptation, Maigret, by the grace of Depardieu, also becomes a great film about the loss of a child.

"[23] Frédéric Strauss of Télérama wrote, "Massive and replete with earthly power, Gérard Depardieu is also completely open to let us guess the intimate and less familiar side of a commissaire who lives in his thoughts, with those that haunt him.

Didier Péron of Libération wrote, "the director of Les Bronzés enlists Depardieu and, in the mothballs of this over-decorated and accessorized adaptation, neutralizes the residual passion of the freewheeling and totally withdrawn (or drunk...) star.

But we are left with the impression of a breathless attempt that misses the degree of excess and scale necessary to certify it in the ranks of great haunting or theoretical films.