ANATOMY OF A FALL

ANATOMY OF A FALL is a French drama about the prosecution of Sandra Voyter, a woman accused of murdering her husband after he mysteriously fell from the third floor of their home. Sandra’s attorney and old friend Vincent works to prove that, despite Sandra and her husband’s marital strife and Sandra’s frequent adultery, she was not responsible for his death. Key to the case is Sandra’s blind son, Daniel, the only person who can provide the necessary information to discover the truth. Although Sandra is ultimately proven innocent, thanks to Daniel’s testimony, her entire life is exposed and scrutinized. It is not only her husband’s physical fall from the roof that is analyzed and laid bare for the world to see. So also is the fall of their marriage, from whirlwind romance between two ambitious writers to a rotting, dysfunctional shell.

ANATOMY OF A FALL is a prime example of a psychological legal drama that pierces deep into the inner workings of its characters. More a character study than actual mystery, the film unveils every layer of Sandra Voyter with meticulous pacing. The movie’s incredible camerawork serves to highlight the poignant erasure of her privacy and peace of mind, and the corrosion of her relationship with her son, whose innocence is destroyed by learning the truth about his parents’ marriage in court. The story has a key flaw, however, in that the audience is never really given reason to doubt that Sandra is innocent. At no point is the audience shown or told something that would call the self-inflicted nature of her husband’s fall into question. This compromises the plot’s believability and lowers the dramatic tension, as the viewer is unable to buy into the prosecution’s side of the legal proceedings enough for the outcome to ever be in doubt.

The disinfection by sunlight of Sandra Voyter’s contributions to the deterioration of her marriage don’t prompt her to change. Although it’s conceivable that, after the events of the story, as Sandra rebuilds her relationship with her son, she makes amends for her wrongdoing, that redemptive change in her character isn’t shown nor hinted at by the end. Thus, the depiction of and references to her actions have little value to the discerning moviegoer, aside from highlighting the broken state in which every person’s soul remains when they don’t choose to live for a higher calling. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution.