As the relationship between his parents deteriorates (or rather, deteriorates even further), young Thomas begins to show troublesome behavior : he lies, he invents, he causes problems at school. One day Thomas runs into two escaped convicts. Very few people are willing to listen to his tales about dangerous strangers who threaten and mistreat him...

Viewed as a crime thriller or gangster movie, "Le lieu du crime" starts out slow, builds up a nice atmosphere of threat, menace and violence, and then, sadly, peters out. The ending seemed particularly weak... The movie works better as drama, since it gives a moving portrayal of a family rent by conflict and lack of communication. Unsurprisingly, the thirteen-year-old son/grandson is the one who suffers the most - it's always the most vulnerable who pay the heaviest price. And since he's turning into a damaged, unreliable loner, it's likely that, when his time comes round, he'll hand HIS children a nice dose of generational legacy...

Anyway, the movie offers the audience some fine acting, especially by the boy actor performing the thankless role of Thomas. The movie also contains not one but two female acting legends, in the persons of Catherine Deneuve (as the boy's mother) and Danielle Darrieux (as the boy's maternal grandmother). Both ladies give fine performances, too.