FRENCH writer/actress/director Maiwenn built this film in fictional documentary form, a collection of vignettes showing the Child Protection Unit of the Paris police performing casework, embedded in a framework of unit members at play, with family, dealing with organisation politics.

Police interviews of paedophiles and pederasts, however disagreeable, candidly say things worth hearing. Although scripted, those passages ring close to credible, as do sequences showing the boys and girls of the unit letting down their hair after really bad days at the office.

But passages showing wear and tear that the job inflicts on their private lives lack coherence in the context of the film’s narrative theme and relevance in that of its dramatic energy. We quickly get to know the protagonists but the screenplay wants us to accept their relationships without question, which we sometimes can’t.

This is not to say that “Polisse” doesn’t deliver value. Cop-stuff passages punch above their weight to present an investigative environment that we’ve all heard about, but probably not seen, that we hope will never touch our families. Comic passages invite us to think beyond the moment. Emotional passages offer talented actors chances to deliver heartfelt statements that vary the film’s pace.

Maiwenn’s management of sequences involving many participants is deft. Her own performance as a departmental photographer documenting the unit at work strikes me as a vanity. But she’s certainly a handsome creature after the physically-least-attractive man in the unit persuades her to pelt the granny glasses and let down her hair.

Despite its shortcomings, “Polisse” can adequately reward people blessed with generosity of spirit and concern for vulnerable youngsters. Which, when you think about it, is everybody except potential clients of the unit.

At Greater Union