Anatomy of a Fall (2023) Review

When a woman is the main suspect of her husband’s murder, she must attempt to defend herself with their blind son being the main witness, pushing his morals to the limit.

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*Original title: Anatomie d’une chute*

When Samuel is found dead in the snow outside the chalet that he lived in, with his wife Sandra and their 11 year old son Daniel, an investigation will be lauched and the conclusion is that the death is suspicious. A lack of evidence or witnesses make it very difficult to determine whether he took his own life or was killed.

The case is then taken to court the whole relaltionship between Samuel and Sandra becomes the main talking point in the trial, with every single little part of it scrutinised and questioned. Recordings that have been made available to listen to, some don’t give Sandra much hope when it becomes evident that aggression was often part of the arguments and fights.

Daniel must listen to all of this information about his parents and with his own memories of different events and behaviour from them. He is also forced to re-enact what happened the morning of his fathers death in an attempt to find out if he is lying for his mother, could he really hear them with the loud music?

I think a super interesting part of this film is the fact that it makes you seriously wonder and question every single little thing that has happened. While also making you hope that you never become a witness to anything in your lifetime, the way you are then questioned would make you doubt everything you thought you knew.

The film moves between English and French and I thought that really added to it all, with Sandra being German and at times struggling with French she then chose to speak in English. So the whole lost in translation could also be a factor as well.

Sandra Huller is fantastic in the film and really does carry it fully from start to finish, relying on her to be strong and that is something she manages to effortlessly. I won’t be surprised if she is nominated for best actress at the 2024 Oscars. For a young actor Milo Machado Graner was very impressive as well, given some good scenes.