The orphans: generous but imperfect (critic)
Dali Benssalah and Alban Lenoir form a unnatural team in this muscular and effective thriller, despite a agreed scenario
Gab and Driss, former friends of an orphanage with diametrically opposed destinies, find themselves after years of scramble. One became a police officer at IGPN, square and methodical, the other fixer for thugs, more tactical and inspired by special forces. Their forced meeting? The suspicious death of Sofia, their first common love, in a mysterious car accident. Her daughter Leïla, 17 years old and rod’s combat champion, does not intend to let this injustice pass. When the teenager seizes Gab’s service weapon and launches on the track of a powerful business ready to do anything to stifle the case, the two men have no choice but to team up to save her before she made her irreparable.
Olivier Schneider, head stuntman recognized for his work on James Bond (specter, dying can wait), Fast & Furious or Taken, signs his second feature film here after Gtmax. And in fact, Schneider masters his favorite field perfectly. The action sequences are millimeter: spectacular waterfalls in the streets of Saint-Jean-de-Luz, Dantesque prosecution with cars of all genres, choreographed shootings where each stroke brought to its narrative logic. Alban Lenoir, faithful to his reputation, also carried out 100% of his physical waterfalls and we see that he had to appreciate his sequences at the wheel of the Ford Capri.
But Lenoir alone could not have done anything here … Schneider indeed put everything on his duo. It is announced from the credits which takes up the principle of opening up your friendly your. The orphans plays on the contrast and if Lenoir is impeccable as a taciturn policeman, masking his injuries behind a cold and methodical temperament, Dali Benssalah radiates in a Hableur fixer who hides his sorrows behind a humor pincer-rire. Their alchemy works well, creating amusing moments of complicity which avoid the trap of the Buddy Movie Caricatural. Sonia Faïdi effectively completes the trio in explosive teenager, while Anouk Grinberg and Suzanne Clément structure the story a little.
A little… because if on the action side, it sends, the film does not escape certain pitfalls. The orphans suffer from notable lengths in its first hour, a problem of rhythm which slows down the rise in power. Even more embarrassing the scenario remains very agreed, struggling to renew the codes of the genre. Above all, comic attempts do not always find their target, sometimes lacking in naturalness. The balance is not always reached and the film hesitates too much between family thriller and pure entertainment of action. The orphans still remain a calibrated entertainment and Schneider proves that he masters both the staging and the waterfalls, delivering a muscular and generous film, even imperfect.
By Olivier Schneider. With Alban Lenoir, Dali Benssalah, Sonia Faïdi … Duration: 1h35. Released August 20, 2025
