A Comedy of Power (PG)

Unlooked-for treat of the week is this smart, low-key, satire on the Elf Aquitaine corruption scandal. No prior knowledge of French politics is needed to appreciate Isabelle Huppert, wonderfully elegant and commanding, as the investigating magistrate on the trail of corporate malfeasance who fails to notice that she herself is not immune to every sort of corruption.

Very little happens, and it has the look of a TV movie; yet the pace never seems to let up, the screen never seems empty, and its grip on your attention doesn't falter.