OK so at the moment I record every week the 1994 French-Czech Maigret TV series on Talking Pictures (82 freeview) Tuesday evenings. That is variable but watchable.
This is dire. Slow, just boring. a paper-thin plot and story, and characters it is hard to care about. A bit confused too.
I suspect this is a Gerard Depardieu vanity piece.
A film to watch to pass the time but do not expect much.
The concept that this is french language only with subtitles should be highlighted front and centre. I would not have bothered if I had known. Yes it is buried in the available formats tab, but how many people look at that.
As a reader of many Maigret stories I much admired this film. Gérard Depardieu as an older Maigret was convincing and showed how Maigret would get under the skin of the protagonists and draw them to reveal their motives. Not a police procedural or all action but absorbing and full of atmosphere.