''The Lost Son'' is a 1999
crime drama
Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...
starring French actor
Daniel Auteuil and set in London. It was directed by
Chris Menges.
Plot
Xavier Lombard is a Parisian private detective based in London. His best friend is Nathalie, a high-class call girl. He gets a telephone call from an old friend in the Paris police department, now a businessman whose brother-in-law is missing. The missing man's parents hire Xavier over their daughter's objections, and he quickly finds himself caught up in the underworld of
child sex slavery. He guesses that the lost son is dead and shifts his focus to finding and breaking this lucrative business of child trafficking. He gets a reluctant Nathalie to hunt "the Austrian", the shadowy head of the
pedophile
Pedophilia ( alternatively spelt paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puberty a ...
ring. Violence erupts quickly, and Xavier soon has little more to lose.
Cast
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Daniel Auteuil - Lombard
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Marianne Denicourt - Nathalie
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Nastassja Kinski
Nastassja Aglaia Kinski (; , ; born 24 January 1961) is a German actress and former model who has appeared in more than 60 films in Europe and the United States. Her worldwide breakthrough was with ''Stay as You Are'' (1978). She then came to gl ...
- Deborah
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Katrin Cartlidge - Emily
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Ciarán Hinds
Ciarán Hinds (; born 9 February 1953) is an Irish actor. Born in Belfast, Hinds is known for a range of screen and stage roles. He has starred in feature films including '' The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover'' (1989), ''Persuasion'' (19 ...
- Carlos
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Bruce Greenwood - Alex Friedman
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Billie Whitelaw
Billie Honor Whitelaw (6 June 1932 – 21 December 2014) was an English actress. She worked in close collaboration with Irish playwright Samuel Beckett for 25 years and was regarded as one of the foremost interpreters of his works. She was al ...
- Mrs Spitz
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Cyril Shaps - Mr. Spitz
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Jamie Harris - Hopper
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Cal Macaninch - Martin
* Hemal Pandya - Shiva
* Billy Smyth - "Boy No 6"
Reception
DVD Verdict
DVD Verdict was a judicial-themed website for DVD reviews. The site was founded in 1999. The editor-in-chief was Michael Stailey, who owned the website between 2004 and 2016, and the site employed a large editorial staff of critics, whose reviews ...
panned the film, writing "''The Lost Son'' has its heart in the right place, but it fumbles the ball by presenting an idea with great potential in a fairly lackluster package. There is not enough substance here to make the film worthy of a purchase." ''The Herald'' was mixed in their review, stating that Menges "handles the unpleasant aspects in Eric and Margaret Leclere's script with tact" but that the film had too many unbelievable moments.
References
External links
The Lost Son, by Eric Leclere (pub. Alibi Books 1999, London)- The original novel on which the film was based.
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1999 films
1999 crime thriller films
American crime thriller films
American multilingual films
British mystery films
British thriller films
American detective films
Films about child sexual abuse
Films about pedophilia
Films about prostitution in the United Kingdom
Films directed by Chris Menges
Films scored by Goran Bregović
Films set in London
Films set in Mexico
French thriller films
French multilingual films
1990s French-language films
English-language French films
1990s American films
1990s British films
1990s French films
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