Vlissingen 2025 Review: HOW TO MAKE A KILLING Is A Fun Look At Corruption

Vlissingen's Film by the Sea Festival always has a special section for French films, and one of the funniest this year was Franck Dubosc's criminal caper Un Ours Dans le Jura. This literally translates to "A Bear in the Jura", the Jura being the region which gave the Jurassic Age its name, after dinosaur bones were found there. It's a fitting title as all mayhem literally starts with a bear in the Jurassic woods. But maybe to avoid audiences from thinking this film to be a documentary, the English title used internationally is the rather bland and nondescript How to Make a Killing. Ah well... thankfully the film is entertaining enough to survive any title.



In How to Make a Killing we see Christmas tree salesman Michel trying to make ends meet in an economy where prices are rising, to the point that Michel can't pay his bills and worse: many people no longer have the money to buy a Christmas tree. One day, Michel takes a shortcut through the woods and, after having to swerve for a bear on the road, he accidentally runs his car over some drug smugglers. A panicked Michel discovers a bag with two million Euros in it, and he and his wife decide to hide the accident and keep the dough.



That is more easily said than done though, as the couple are the clumsiest criminals imaginable, and leave traces so obvious and bizarre they actually manage to confound the local police. And of course the smugglers are also wondering what happened to their buddies and the money...



Basically what we get here is Sam Raimi's 1998 film A Simple Plan, in which a couple also suddenly got their hands on a load of drug money. After the initial euphoria, the people in that film went straight into a shitstorm, and in How to Make a Killing, that happens too. The difference is: here, it is a hoot. Michel is played by director Dubosc himself, as a meek man who is in over his head. Laure Calamy plays Cathy, Michel's not-so-meek wife who constantly manages to come up with horrifically weird ideas that make matters worse. Watching these two stumble their way through scenes of gory disposal is inherently funny all by itself. But stealing the show is Benoît Poelvoorde as the local police Major who desperately tries to solve the case AND get his Christmas together, while being confronted with increasingly serious crimes and all-enveloping corruption, some of which coming from his colleagues and friends. Poelvoorde is a delight to watch, often laugh-out-loud funny, effortlessly switching between the straight guy and clown when needed.



It's a French slapstick comedy with corpses, a bit too sweet to become a classic, but still with a pleasant acid edge. I liked it a lot. And audiences in Vlissingen gave it a 4,46 out of 5.