A very good movie

Since I kept hearing some pretty good things about this flick (it did with the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival, among other things), I was quite eager to check it out. Well, I wasn’t disappointed, that’s for sure. Indeed, it must be hands down one of the very best legal procedurals I have ever seen and the damned thing was just to subtle, so cleverly put together, I’m not surprised that it also won the Academy Award for the Best Original Screenplay. Eventually, I was expecting that they would show some flashbacks so that you could get a better idea about who was this woman and this man and what was exactly their relationship but it happened only once because the victim had actually recorded this conversation (while his wife actually didn’t know about it, something my ex-wife used to do all the time but that’s another story). Anyway, this approach was just so effective because, as a result, you are basically on the bench during this trial, listening to the testimonials. On top of that, everybody from the defense, from the prosecution, the judges, everything they said did make sense which was just so refreshing compared to the black-and-white characters that you get in your usual Hollywood production. Sure, you might have some personal opinion about which theory might be correct but every character was so well written, the dialogues were razor sharp, it was just spellbinding to behold. Eventually, there were very little evidence and, at the end of the day, either you believe this woman or you don’t and if you expect this movie to give some easy answers, I’m afraid you will be disappointed. The fact that we, as a viewer, have to go through this process was difficult enough but to witness her son (by the way, the kid who played this character was just so amazing) going through this process as well was just so heartbreaking. I mean, in his case, either his father did commit suicide or his mother killed him, in both scenarios, the end-result will remain so tragic. The fact that his accident and his subsequent handicap was at the center of the tensions between his parents was also really heavy for the poor boy. Concerning Sandra Hüller, she was just amazing delivering such a pitch-perfect performance resulting in such a complex character. Anyway, to conclude, I really loved the damned thing and it is definitely worth a look.