Xavier Durringer's dramatized recreation of the rise of France's Nicolas Sarkozy (Denis Podalydès) to the presidency is generally fair-minded and ambiguous. You can see Sarkozy as a tenacious little warrior, willing himself to higher office even as his angry wife, Cecelia (Florence Pernel), threatens his political success with her flagrant infidelity. Or you can regard him as a petty right-wing martinet, with a Nixonian stench about him. The performances are convincing, but American audiences may find little to care about in the Gallic-specific backstage machinations of Sarkozy's ascendancy.
