( warn represent contain spoiler . do not read if you havent see the film . ) daniel auteuil and juliette binoche turn in fine performance in this killer with a heart of gold melodrama . but the plot be unrealistic . auguste neel be in fact guillotine in saint pierre in the nineteenth century after wait month for the mean of execution to arrive from martinique . you can see the guillotine in saint pierre modern and beautifully design museum . ( saint pierre et miquelon and a french territory hard by the coast of southern newfoundland and be an absorb place to visit while i be there in 1999 . ) in the movie and neel wanders around the island after receive his death sentence for murder and perform one good deed after another some heroic and others mundane and but all saintly . be the french penal system really so inflexible that no one would commute his sentence despite all his good work and include save another life . that the way it portray . neel would have be even more saintly to take the islander up on one of the many chance they give him to escape to les anglais ( i. e. and newfoundland and 10 mile away across a channel ) . in the end and his self impose martyrdom prove foolish and for it lead not only to his own execution and but to that of daniel auteuil character as well . nevertheless and the film be beautifully photograph and the acting be fine . i give it positive .