Anything for Her

Please do not read this if you haven't seen the movie. I was extremely disappointed in this movie. It is well made, has great actors, and a great beginning, but it goes absolutely nowhere. It completely failed in achieving its potential. It does not tell the real story. It feels like just half a movie. The movie concentrates on his effort to free his wife, but that is not the real story. The real story revolves around whether she did it or not, and whether, once they are free, she is either absolved or exposed. That is interesting. The mechanics of engineering an escape are boring, and his descent into robbery and murder to free his wife are not interesting because we do not follow his journey into anguish and despair. The emotional journey is not there. The film makers have made it hard on themselves by having the couple have a young son. His presence forces the father to keep his act together and act normal. Without him the actor could have given his anguish much more exposure. I would like to have seen the first half of this movie showing the murder, her capture, their escape to a foreign country, always keeping her guilt ambiguous, and the second half the cop, who is a strong charismatic character, hunt them down and finally capture them. He could become convinced of her innocence and they would only receive a light sentence for running away, but you would always suspect she was really guilty and that he was duped. Or perhaps he is fixated on her guilt and hunts them down and captures them, but in the ensuing court case, she is proved innocent. However, years later he discovers he was right after all. Or perhaps he never finds them, but years later he runs into their grown son, and finally discovers the truth about what she did. This movie is extremely frustrating, because so much potential was lost.

Pour Elle is the most recent high-profile French thriller to receive a limited cinematic release on British shores. With superior acting from Vincent Lindon and Diane Kruger as strong, sympathetic leading characters and a good, conundrum-driven plot line, there is every reason to expect a gripping experience along the lines of "Tell No One" - a comparison emphasised by the advertisers. Unfortunately, although in acting a dialogue there is a lot to recommend here, the film does not form as exciting a package as Tell No One. But first the good: as with many French movies, the representations of family life and the everyday interactions between spouses or parents with children are represented with a care and accuracy that is simply not found in most English language films. France seems to have a surfeit of fantastic child actors and directors who know how to use them. Similarly, the quality of the acting amongst the cast as a whole is superb, hitting the right note of realism without slipping into the cartoonishly grim and dour found in many British films. The problems with the movie are largely related to the fact that the story is somewhat simplistic for a thriller, with no real twists or anything to engage the intellect, as well as the fact that the constant emphasis of the hardship and injustice faced by the family as a result of the wife's wrongful imprisonment simply makes the movie difficult to actually enjoy watching. I found myself becoming increasingly depressed at the wife's prospect of spending the next 20 years trying to ward off suicide in a prison cell knowing that she was innocent. A fact that was driven home often enough that the ending did provide enough catharsis to warrant the misery of the first hour. Although the point is made that this is the story of an ordinary man trying to perform an act that, as the multiple-escapist at the beginning of the film assures us, can only be done by a "born criminal", the film seems to present the escape as surprisingly easy to plan. There is very little attempt to guide us through the process - with much of the interesting, intricate work presented in montage. Rather than focusing on the nuts and bolts of the escape plan, as we would expect from a thriller, these are passed through in a cursory manner as the tension is built around the increasing strain placed on the characters. Although there is nothing wrong with this approach, it doesn't entirely sit at ease with the rushed escape that ends the film (although the ending does involve the cleverest moment in the story, involving an internet car-share website). Although far from a bad film, Pour Elle is an uneasy mix of personal drama and thriller which achieves much more as the former than the latter. As someone expecting a movie more like "Tell No One", I can't say I enjoyed the film as much I could have.

Another Gallic thriller in the vein of Tell No One, but not to be sniffed at. Vincent Lindon is superb as the ordinary guy trying to bust his wife out of prison. Diane Kruger is also effective, if slightly implausibly beautiful, as the desperate wife. Their sympathetic, believable performances keep what could have been a far-fetched story grounded in reality. Some genuinely tense scenes are also well handled by the director. This is the third foreign language thriller I've seen a few weeks (others were Let the Right One In and Fermat's Room) and it has to be said the continentals are doing it better than the English language cinema. Anything For Her is well worth a look and it doesn't outstay its welcome at 96 minutes.

I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. Of course the whole idea of the plot is not very believable, an ordinary man trying to get his ordinary wife to escape from prison. That is the downpoint of the film. However, through the great performances by both actors Vincent Lindon and Diane Kruger, and the wonderful chemistry between them, you actually care for them, and understand the psychological motivation of the husband. Add to that the perfectly paced development of the story, and you end up with a solid, entertaining thriller with real emotions. In my opinion, you forget the unrealistic aspect of a film when the performance(s) of the actor(s) are deep and the emotions strong. So for me, even though this film provides nothing new, it is a brilliantly executed thriller.

This is a badly conceived thriller. We have a situation where a man's wife is suddenly arrested and sent to prison for murder. There are enough subtle clues in the film for us to be certain of her innocence. Indeed, the murder was really committed by another woman whom we actually glimpse. Creepily, this same woman sits beside the wife in the park and they chat. But this film lets us down. Surely everyone who writes thrillers knows that people want to know whodunit. In this film, the question of what really happened is ignored, and the entire story is based upon the husband (Vincent Lindon)'s efforts to bust his wife out of jail. Really, that is not the way thrillers are supposed to work. Fred Cavayé wrote and directed this film and we should take him over our knee and give him a good spanking. It may be very watchable, but he shattered the canon of the thriller by allowing a mystery to go unsolved. You can't do that and get away with it!

Wisely they don't ask Diane Kruger to do any acting apart from looking 1) ravishing and 2) anguished. She's an ordinary woman living an ordinary life with her teacher husband (Vincent Lindon) and son until one day she stumbles on to a crime in a car park, picks up the murder weapon unaware that's that what it is, as the murderer escapes. For being this dumb she winds up in the slammer and ordinary teacher husband Lindon spends the bulk of the film devising a plan to spring her. It's something of a novelty to see Lindon, a fine actor, in something as close to a caper movie as this but he acquits himself well and there is an element of suspense right until the last moment. More than worth a look.

So, what would YOU do if your spouse is convicted on a murder charge and sentenced to 20 years in jail? The film explores to what lengths someone might go, and it takes the viewer on a journey that is anything but expected. And it does it in convincing style and fashion and has you glued to your seat from beginning to end. OK, Julien enters a world that makes him do things that we should by rights not find acceptable. And yet, one can do nothing but root for him to succeed, regardless of his methods. I absolutely loved the power and speed of this film. It's action-packed, but also has a lot of depth. A superb thriller throughout!

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning Julien (Vincent Lindon) is a french bloke who's about to settle down to have a nice meal with his wife Lisa (Diane Kruger) and son, when the police raid his apartment and arrest Lisa on suspicion of murdering her boss. She's innocent, but too much plausible evidence is stacked against her and she looks set to spend a long time in jail for a crime she didn't commit. With everything going wrong, Julien mounts a plan to spring her from the nick and is driven to desperate lengths to see his plan through. This small, independent film first took me by surprise during the opening credits which had french writing all over them. I had been looking forward to seeing Mesrine which is one of the more well known french films to have come out lately, but this looked like a normal American sort of lesser known film, but then I see it's all in french?!? Anyway, that shouldn't be a major problem and it isn't- and this is a decent thriller with quite a high concept idea behind the storyline which is driven with some solid drama and thrilling gusto. It's a bit too unremarkable to have much of an effect beyond that, but it's nice to know our continental neighbours can carry off their own legs. ***

Knowing virtually nothing about this film before I went in (I was the only one in the cinema), I was surprised to find that it is a French film, subtitled in English (the cinema billed it as Anything For Her and, from what I could gather using my not-very-good French, the subtitles were about as accurately translated as the title)). In throwaway flashbacks, we learn how Lisa (Diane Kruger from Troy and the National Treasure movies) ends up in prison for a murder which she didn't commit. When, after three years, her legal remedies are all exhausted, she attempts suicide. At this point her schoolteacher husband Julien (Vincent Lindon) decides that his only choice is to break her out of prison and escape to another country in assumed identities with her and their five year old son. In order to do so he must first dip his toe into the underworld. The bulk of the film tells of how he makes and executes his plans. This was an interesting and gripping film, telling an unusual story from an unusual viewpoint. There wasn't a vast amount of action (although the small amount of action was well executed), but that didn't matter: the story itself was a powerful engine driving the film along. Lindon's performance seemed initially rather one-note: on consideration, I think I can see that it was actually rather Gallic, suggesting hidden depths which showed through infrequently. Diane Kruger plays nicely against type, as a dowdy jailbird throughout most of the film. In short, a small film, but very good of its type.

Julien (Vincent Lindon) is an unprepossessing French teacher, happily married to Lisa (Diane Kruger), a wife he deeply loves. Their idyllic suburban life is rudely interrupted, however, when the police shockingly crash their home and arrest Lisa on suspicion of the brutal murder of her boss. With Lisa's fingerprints on the weapon, and the victim's blood on her jacket, she is found guilty and sentenced to twenty years in prison. If you like your suspense powerful and unnerving, do not hesitate to seek out Anything For Her (Pour Elle), the debut effort of French director Fred Cavayé, an enormously entertaining thriller that delivers a high level of satisfaction. Imprisoned for a crime she probably did not commit (the director offers two possible scenarios but it is clear which one is the more likely), Lisa, still proclaiming her innocence, faces long, dark days ahead without her husband and their young son Oscar (Lancelot Roch). Overwhelmed with sadness, Julien becomes single-minded in his drive to reunite the family. After three years, when his attorney tells him that Lisa stands no chance before the Appeals Court and Lisa becomes suicidal, refusing to take her insulin shots, Julien knows that he must take matters into his own hands and will stop at nothing to accomplish his goal. Locating an ex-con who has written books about his attempts to break out of jail, Julien convinces him to tutor him on the do's and don'ts of prison escape, telling the ex-con that he wants to teach the author's experience to his students. His ultimate plan, though, is not revealed either to Lisa, Julien's parents (Liliane Rovere and Olivier Perrier), or to the audience, which serves to greatly enhance the suspense. To save the woman he loves from certain death in prison, however, Julien must transform himself from laid-back school teacher to action hero, pushing himself far beyond the limits of what is reasonable. While attempting to obtain false papers and new identities, he comes into contact with some very unpleasant local criminal types and finds himself no longer reluctant to use violence to accomplish his ends. Supported by an excellent script by the director, outstanding cinematography by Alain Duplaintier, and a moody score by Klaus Badelt, Anything For Her is entertaining, riveting, and ultimately a very moving love story. None of it would be very convincing, however, if not for the outstanding performances of Lindon and Kruger, especially Lindon whose sudden personality change requires great skill to pull off. Lindon's eyes convey powerful emotion that is not desperation but a strong and unyielding determination that serves as a catalyst for the events that build to the film's heart pounding climax. Although Anything For Her has been criticized for being "implausible", when an individual's every act is consumed with passion and overwhelming intention, then the implausible will most certainly become the expected.