A layered, smart and elegant psychological thriller that begins as a murder mystery, morphs into a courtroom drama, and ends up a blistering examination of a failing marriage.
Is it possible to ever know the full truth about a marriage? What if the two people inside it have a completely different perspective on the truth? And what if one of them is dead, leaving behind only memories, snippets of conversations, and other people’s interpretations? Justine Triet’s gripping drama leaves the viewers with no easy answers.
Almost instantly, you get a feeling that something is off between Sandra (Sandra Hüller), a successful German-born writer, and her French husband Samuel (Samuel Theis). In the opening scene, Sandra is forced to cut short an interview with a bright-eyed graduate student because of the deafening music assaulting their eardrums from upstairs, where Samuel is busy with renovations. The film is very spare on score, but I’m definitely going to remember Samuel’s banger of choice, a cover of 50 Cent’s P.I.M.P., playing over and over on repeat to an effect that’s both comical and disturbing.
These private tensions are about to be dissected in a very public way, because Samuel is found dead near the couple’s alpine chalet by their visually impaired 11-year-old son, Daniel (Milo Machado Graner, also a standout in a sensitive, mature and anguished performance). When the cause of his death is ruled to be inconclusive, Sandra finds herself put on trial, with Daniel now one of the key witnesses on the case and torn on whether his mother could really be a murderer.
For a thriller, Anatomy of a Fall is surprisingly muted and unshowy, but its intricate script always keeps the viewer guessing, constantly layering one revealing detail over another. We learn that Sandra has had an affair, that Samuel was an aspiring writer who never managed to get off the ground, and that he carried guilt over the accident that caused Daniel’s blindness in early childhood. Sandra’s novels, which she admits are loosely based on her own life and conflicts, are scrutinised for clues that point to her thinking of killing her husband. But, as Sandra insists, is it really fair to cherry-pick the worst moments from their relationship when happier fragments would have painted a completely different picture?
Hüller’s phenomenal performance gives what could have been an overly tasteful movie a jolt of energy it needs; it succeeds even better as a fascinating character study of a woman who is not easy to get to know or pin down as guilty or innocent. Sandra is reserved and preternaturally composed, with a quiet intensity about her that can be intimidating. She expresses no guilt over prioritising her writing career and has no tolerance for victim mentality in others. She has moments of vulnerability with her son and her lawyer, an old friend who was once in love with her, but Sandra is not an image of an easily sympathetic wife or a conventionally “good” mother, both to the in-movie jurors and probably the audience as well. This is a demanding role requiring a wide range of emotions, and Hüller is simply enthralling.
Triet’s direction carefully feeds into the air of uncertainty and suspicion pervading the film. I perhaps could have done with a bit less technical evidence during the courtroom scenes, but overall the movie remains riveting throughout its considerable running time. The constant language shifts between French and English bring in a different energy, as if you were listening to a piece of music with multiple tempo shifts that keep you on your toes. It was an interesting angle for the English language to be both a middle ground for an international French-German couple, and also yet another source of festering resentment in the marriage.
Special mentions must go to the stunning yet unobtrusive alpine scenery, and Daniel’s adorable companion, a dog named Snoop, who along with everyone else gives a stellar performance (though there’s one scene that leaves you sincerely hoping that the dog wasn’t method acting).
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