Shattered

Trintignant escorts his 11-year-old stepson from school in Italy to their new home in Paris, where wife (Darc) awaits. They're pursued, Duel style, by a psychopathic killer (Fresson) who terrorises them with his Ford Panel van. Along the way, Leroy handles a host of proven topical elements capably enough - urban paranoia, misogynistic killer, precocious kid, bigoted cop (Celi); and the rip-off of the basic plot mechanism from Spielberg's movie (by way of Dean Koontz's novel Shattered, published under the pseudonym KR Dwyer) is effective enough. But casting and payoff are both too predictable to make what emerges anything more than an efficient, glossy thriller delivered without any particular conviction.