Review: 'Anatomy of a Fall'

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Watching the theatrics of a French courtroom drama—illustrated more recently in last year’s great Saint Omer and now in this year’s Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall—is a wonder to behold to American audiences unused to it all. Unfamiliar as it might be, it feels true enough to what it might be like to watch defendants question the expertise of expert witnesses or to see a dialogue come to life between the prosecution and the defense. Language is weaponized, as speaking French in the courtroom is paramount—and also a major barrier for its defendant, who isn’t as comfortable speaking it as she is others. And with an alleged crime where perspective is paramount, the stakes feel even higher.

Neon, Anatomy of a Fall’s North American distributor, has been marketing the film based on the quandary of its central mystery: Did she do it? Did Sandra (Sandra Hüller), a German-born author now residing in France (and who is more comfortable speaking English than her current country’s language), push her husband, Samuel (Samuel Theis), out of the third-story window of their remote chalet that he’s been renovating? Did Samuel fall, a complete accident, as Sandra initially insists? Or did he jump out of the window himself, leaving his loved ones to wonder if they missed the signs?

Whether or not Sandra actually committed murder is of less interest to director Justine Triet (who co-wrote the script with her partner Arthur Harari) than the singularness that is one couple’s marriage and how—no matter how much it’s dragged across the coals in the media or a courtroom by the Avocat général (Antoine Reinartz)—no one truly knows the truth behind that marriage. It’s the kind of film that its lead actor has to carry the full weight of on her shoulders, and my god, does Hüller do that and more. (She’s also excellent in Jonathan Glazer’s haunting drama, The Zone of Interest, out later this year.)

We never actually meet Samuel while he’s still alive, so everything we can glean of him, his marriage to Sandra, and his relationship with their son Daniel (Milo Machado-Graner)—several years earlier, an accident left Daniel partially blind—comes from other people who might want to infer one thing or another. The most we hear of him before that fall comes from a cover of 50 Cent’s “P.I.M.P.” blasted at full volume and on repeat, loud enough to ruin an interview Sandra is in the middle of giving. Whether it’s because it’s for him or to annoy Sandra is left to us to decipher.

From there, every element of Sandra’s life is questioned. Vincent (Swann Arlaud), her lawyer friend, points out that nobody will believe that Samuel fell out of that window, even if it is the truth. And because she was the only person at home when he fell (or was pushed), she’s the main suspect.

“The trial is not about the truth,” Vincent tells her, and it’s only a matter of time before she’s indicted for Samuel’s murder. And every aspect of her life is fair game. A dalliance with a woman years ago and more recent infidelities? All attacks on her character. The initial resentment that Sandra felt toward Samuel for his role in Daniel’s accident? Well, that looks like a motive for murder. The subjects of Sandra’s novels, which seem to take some inspiration from her and Samuel’s lives (and at least one initially stemmed from an idea Samuel abandoned)? Well, that could further fuel his anger toward her—or despair at his own life. And, of course, it just endorses the idea she could’ve killed him. The fallibility of Daniel’s memory and what he heard and when is questioned, as is the truth behind a secret recording Samuel made of a fight the day before he died.

Those uncertainties and partial truths play out on Hüller’s face like artistic rendition and a Rorschach test for the ages. You read what you want to read in her motives; your life experiences inform how much you believe her and how you interpret the evidence at hand. And that’s the brilliance of it all in a single frame.

Anatomy of a Fall is now in limited release.