VIFF 2012 review: The Minister

France is usually depicted as one of the twin pillars of the euro zone, a sort of anti-Greece. Not in this agate-eyed drama from Pierre Schöller, however. In The Minister, statecraft is reduced to damage control, spin-doctoring, petty ambitions, and the art of the impossible. Olivier Gourmet shines in the central role of a functionary who gradually devolves into a dysfunctionary. Admirably tough-minded.