Judging from comments strewn across the web, I'm not alone in my bafflement over The Crimson Rivers' subtext and meaning of its ending. It begins with two apparently disparate crimes, the neo-Nazi desecration of a dead girl's mausoleum and the discovery of a mutilated body on a mountaintop -- and the two crimes inexorably draw each other's investigators (Jean Reno and Vincent Cassel) together. But the cat-and-mouse game of Rivers quickly becomes so convoluted that I still don't quite know what to make of the mountaintop showdown at the end.

Still, this French thriller is so stylish it transcends its numerous problems. It has nail-biting suspense and some great performances. It's the kind of movie America remakes -- think George Clooney, Ben Affleck, and Catherine Zeta-Jones while you're watching -- but of course, Hollywood will screw up the ending even worse, I'm sure.

Aka Les Rivières pourpres.