An unnecessarily overlong, but fascinating French treatment of what would more traditionally be the province of Hollywood or even television mainstream. That is a cold-case murder tale made more intriguing by its emphasis on character analysis and a certain amount of philosophy. The mutable nature of truth commands as much attention as whether or not a certain widower of eight years was or wasn't involved in the alleged brutal and unexplained death of his wife.
That she was the daughter of an all too fallible policeman, that his circumstantial involvement with the scene of the crime has affected his sanity, albeit not his ability as a practicing pediatrician, that his younger sister involved in a loving lesbian relationship knows something that neither he nor the police are aware of, that he is under surveillance again after the police have uncovered two further bodies near the place where his wife died, that he appears to have some highly unexpected street pals who aren't above causing brutal chaos to protect him, and above all, that he believes he has seen her, his dead wife ... all these are intriguing threads conspire to carry us through the more contemplative sections of this unusual thriller.
The acting throughout is impeccable. The camera-work and editing combine to produce appropriate moments of calm and frenzy, mirroring the inner lives of the characters.
If you like dogs that serve a plot purpose as well as looking quite wonderful onscreen -- there's one of those.
And, if you like to see exciting ways of crossing a busy motorway - yes, there's one of those, too.
It's time - as Michael Moore remarks in Sicko - to abandon those Freedom Fries and get back to the French. This is one tasty film, and I'd tell everyone if I were you!
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Demisemicenturian
Posted - 11/08/2007 : 09:31:13 Agreed.
In these circumstances, I find it hard to be objective as to whether a film seems better just because it is in French. Would this film be as good if identical except for language? Maybe it would just seem like a run-of-the-mill thriller. But for whatever reason I really enjoyed it, so that's that.
