I went into this film not knowing too much about it other than it was a thriller and it was French. I was somewhat hesistant as my experience with French thrillers thus far ranged from the quite good (“Ills”) to the completely overrated/I want those hours of my life back sort of way(“Cache”). But I figured what the hell? Honestly, I really just wanted to take a walk to the theater and enjoy a film and this seemed like the best option. Scientific, I know.
Back to the film. Basic synopsis is that a man and his wife are out nekkid swimming. She goes back to the shore, he hears her scream and goes towards her. Unfortunately, he’s knocked unconcious by an unknown assailant before he gets to her. When he wakes up, he’s informed that she is dead, the apparent victim of a serial killer. Six years later, he receives an anonymous email with a link to a webcam. As he is watching, a woman appears on screen who looks a hell of a lot like his dead wife. He receives an email infoming him to “tell no one.” The rest of the movie follows him as he tries to piece together what really happened 6 years ago and what is happening now.
This movie sets up the atmosphere perfectly. Despite running over two hours, I felt engrossed the entire time, waiting for all the pieces to fall together, which they do within perfect timing and context of the story. I also was struck how visually the movie built up tension and atmosphere to work along with the story. The cast worked well in their respective characters, especially the leds. As I’ve seen on other sites, this movie feels like a combo of “Vertigo” and “The Vanishing”. This movie was what Cache should have been, but stick figures aren’t too frightening really. (If you saw Cache, you’d know about the stick figures.)