Arresting cop drama 'Polisse' guilty of self-righteousness

• Courtesy of Sundance Selects
• PARISIAN POLICEWOMEN: Karin Viard, Marina Foïs, Emmanuelle Bercot

If Polisse were an American cop show - and the French drama often resembles an ensemble crime series - it would probably be titled "Law & Order: CPU." Polisse depicts a Child Protection Unit of the Parisian police department and how the officers, many of whom are women, work wrenching cases and deal with the stresses of the job.

Director/co-writer Maïwenn doesn't flinch from scenes in which detectives question children about whether or not they were molested, which makes for grim viewing. Instead of focusing in on a few cases,Polisse zooms out to convey the scope of the full department, from the tensions between partners to interdepartmental rivalries, from encounters with the worst of humanity to after-hours nightclub crawls to blow off steam. Polisse achieves an impressively realistic level of texture amid constant activity, but at the expense of thematic depth.