CINEMA: Anything For Her

The French have a knack for making excellent thrillers as they proved when they took Harlan Coben’s Tell No One and, despite transporting it across the Atlantic, crafted a brilliant film from it.

This time it’s an original story from co-writer and director Fred Cavaye about happily married couple Lisa (Diane Kruger) and Julien (Vincent London). They are still passionately in love and lead a normal life with their young son Oscar, but one morning their world comes crashing down around them as the police storm into the house and arrest Lisa for a brutal murder. She is quickly found guilty and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Julien is convinced she is innocent and sets about proving this and will stop at nothing it seems to get her out of prison and back with him and their son. How far will he go to save her though, and is she really innocent?

From the cracking opening sequence showing Julien speeding towards a mystery destination with someone bleeding in the back of his car you are thrown right into this film, and your intellect and powers of observation are tested throughout.

This story of a man who loves his wife dearly and will do anything for her and his son is a well-written and thought out idea that in American hands I am sure would end up being cheesy and clumsily handled.

First time director Fred Cavaye does extremely well in creating tension and suspense, and is helped massively by the excellent central performance of Vincent London who makes his character believable. Diane Kruger is good too although spending a lot of the film looking depressed and ugly when visited in jail, but it is London who carries the piece.

This is a cracking thriller that is intelligent enough to leave it up to the audience to decide whether Lisa is guilty or not and whether Julien’s actions in the film are justified in trying to save his wife. See this for sure!

Mark Cappuccio