Review of ANATOMY OF A FALL: Skeptical Suspicions

While novelist Sandra Voyter (Sandra Hüller) was being interviewed by a female student in their chalet in the French Alps, her husband Samuel Maleski (Samuel Theis) was rudely playing music very loudly in his attic room. After the student left, their blind son Daniel (Milo Machado Graner) went out for a long walk with his guide dog Snoop. When he came back home, he discovered his father dead on the snow below his room.  

At first, an accident seemed to be the most apparent cause of the fall. However upon further investigation about the details of the scene -- the height of the window, the pattern of blood splattering on the snow -- all point to another cause. Could it be suicide? Did Samuel ever attempt suicide before? Or could it be murder? Of course, since Sandra was the only other person in the house, she was the prime suspect. 

Writer-director Justine Triet made Sandra the nebulous center of this mystery story. However, as we followed the case unfolding, it increasingly became apart that the resolution of the mystery of Samuel's death was NOT the main point of the story. This was a character study about Sandra, about how the personality she projected colored how we perceive her as a suspect. Sandra Hüller's portrayal of this icy person was as riveting as it was annoying.  

We watched the way she sought legal advice from her lawyer friend Vincent Renzi (Swann Arlaud), insisting that she had nothing to do with the fall. In court, Sandra preferred to speak in English since her French is not fluent, making her seem snobbish, coming across as less sympathetic. Her testimonies tended to be inconsistent, giving rise to doubts. It came to a point where her innocence depended not on facts, but on whether you like her or not.

Triet made sure that audiences would make feel Sandra's vexation (or anger) towards her husband at that point in time. The very loud playing of Bacao Rhythm and Steel Bars' cover of 50 Cent's "P.I.M.P." was purposefully done to get on one's nerves. This raucous music also put the accuracy of Daniel's testimony in question, as, however sharp his hearing was, he may well have not accurately heard what his parents were talking about before he left. 

A most remarkable member of the cast was Messi, the border collie playing Snoop, the support animal of blind Daniel. In one heart-stopping climactic scene, the dog had to play dead while supposedly drugged. It was amazing how Triet (and his trainer) was able to elicit such a realistic performance from a dog. This was truly deserving for the Palm Dog it won during the same Cannes Film Festival where the film itself won the Palme d'Or. 8/10.