Review of Inspector Bellamy

First of all, let's make this clear: if you want to get something out of watching "Inspector Bellamy", forget the trailer, the plot description, the supposed genre it belongs to. This is NOT a police thriller or a murder mystery, in fact the mystery itself, what little there is of it, is over and done with before the first hour of this two-hour film is through; there is no suspense or action either. The only way to approach this film is as a slice-of-life character drama. Chabrol directs it with an almost shocking lack of style, and it plays like an overextended episode of an old-fashioned TV series. Chabrolian traces can be located here and there (Bellamy's suspicions that his extremely loving wife may be cheating on him, the fact that we NEVER see the local police inspector that we keep hearing about, the classical music score, etc.), but there are several of his films that you need to see before this one. Gerard Depardieu is adequate as the title character, but Bellamy is not as memorable as another Chabrol Inspector, Lavardin (played by Jean Poiret in two 1980's films). The best performance in the film is given by Marie Bunel as his VERY attractive middle-aged wife and confidant. **1/2 out of 4.