Philippe Lacroix quietly steals it

Philippe Lacroix gives this role a little extra shape without making a big show of it. I bought the character pretty quickly, which is not always easy in this kind of film. There is a nice lived-in quality to it, nothing too forced. The small reactions do a lot of the heavy lifting. A couple of tiny timing choices really stuck with me. It is the kind of performance that quietly makes the movie sturdier. Not the whole movie, obviously, but it helps a lot.