Tuesday, April 1, 2014

A is for Anything For Her


ANYTHING FOR HER
France, 2008

Running Length: 96 minutes

Cast: Diane Kruger, Vincent Lindon, Lancelot Roch, Olivier Marchal, Hammou Graia
Director: Fred Cavaye
Screenplay: Fred Cavaye, Guillaume Lemans
Cinematography: Alain Duplantier


Diane Kruger stars in this French thriller as a blissfully married wife and mother whose life is thrown into turmoil when she is wrongfully accused of murder and sentenced to twenty years in prison.  Convinced of her innocence, her husband decides to spring her from jail.

First time director Cavaye manages to keep his suspense set-pieces on the right side of plausible and strong performances from Vincent Lindon and Diane Kruger make this a better than average entry into the prison escape movie genre. Beginning the film as a conservative, tweedy schoolteacher, Julien makes the transformation to a driven jail-breaker look natural.  Never do we question him or his motives.  That he is clearly intelligent, and a thorough researcher makes him all the more plausible.  Rather than making this a balls out action film, Cavaye allows the characters room to live and breathe.  There are touching moments between Julien and his young son and tense scenes between him and his estranged father.

Taking up a small portion of the running time is Kruger as the imprisoned Lisa.  But despite her scant screen-time, she makes her presence felt throughout the film.  After all, it is all about her. 

As Julien sets his plan in motion, earlier than he had planned to due to a twist of fate, things move fast.  Cavaye manages to maintain a high level of tension throughout this action-packed, will he-won’t he scenario and you will be on the edge of your seat for the entire twenty minute sequence, impatient to find out if Julien gets away with it. 

Enjoyable, exciting and extremely well paced, this noirish thriller will satisfy and thrill even the most jaded film-goer.  

11 comments:

  1. Sounds like an interesting film.

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  2. Sounds good to me - I'll have to check it out. :)


    Visiting via A-Z Challenge. You might like my theme - it's film/TV/Sci-fi one. Come check it out. ;)
    http://kincavelkorner.wordpress.com/

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  3. Hi Kate, I really like Diane Kruger, but I'm not really a fan of action movies which is why I have probably never heard of it... I'm part of co host Pam's Unconventional Alliance. Dropping in from the #atozchallenge. Good luck! Reflex Reactions

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  4. Hi Kate, Nice to meet a fellow film buff. Enjoyed you post and will be back for more.Mary at Variety, the Spice of Life

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  5. Heya - thanks so much for participating in my cover reveal...and also...we're doing a similar theme for A to Z. NICE! Will be following you this month.

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  6. You've thwarted me again. I'm not so good with international films. But if it stars Diane Kruger, that would be reason enough to watch it.

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  7. I have a funny feeling I've seen an American version, except he actually gets her out of jail and they go on the run. Probably a different concept altogether. I've seen so many over the years, they blur. :P

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  8. Cool. I like that it's a movie that I haven't heard of. I'll have to put it on my to-watch list. It sounds good.

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  9. Sounds like a great movie. I've never heard of it, but I love Diane Kruger and always want to see more of her :)

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  10. This sounds like a great film.... somehow, the same sort of tone from "Kate & Leopold" comes to mind.

    Alex Hurst, fantasy author in Japan. "B is for Books" is my current post.

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  11. This sounds like an interesting film, I haven't heard of it before.

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