Film Review: Pour Elle/Anything for Her

Dir. Fred Cavayé, written. Fred Cavayé, starring. Vincent Lindon, Diane Kruger

It’s been a mixed night; started sophisticated with subtitles, ended with the A-Team and cider; though both experiences involved people incarcerated for a crime they didn’t commit. I’ll stick to telling you about Pour Elle though as it’s by far the classier part.

Pour Elle/ Anything For Her

It’s an interesting take on the prison break scenario. A typical (therefore very passionate and blissfully happy, but what else would you expect?) French family are strained when the wife is imprisoned with no hope of reprieve, convicted of a murder she had no part in. Her husband, Julien, is ‘just a teacher’ yet he sets out to break her free. ‘Just a teacher’ seems a little snide as if he couldn't possibly, especially as he wears a serious leather jacket, but Julien is to all intents and purposes a normal man - he loves his little son, misses his wife, looks bored in class - so how does he manage to pull off something so grandiose and daring?

The answer is that he becomes totally obsessed by the break and that obsession is utterly compelling. His logic is replaced by involvement: executing the plan out rather than his wife being free, is Julien's reason to go on. The wife is undoubtedly innocent, so you can feel sympathetic as well as voyeuristic to his attempt, and in many cases his best guesses of how to execute the details have distinctly unglamorous consequences.

At some point we’ve all fantasised about how to get hold of fake passports, or buck the system in some way (particularly when buying train tickets from the blood sucking poor service providers – you know you’ll be standing, or the air conditioning will break), but putting that into action? I wouldn’t have the foggiest, and I will darkly admit that I’d like to, so I was engrossed by watching this everyday chap read up books by escapees and try to be daring, especially when the momentum of events overtake him.

It’s very good: it feels, and thanks to brilliant lighting, looks real. I don't think I could pull a prison break off though- I’m not a grizzled, passionate Frenchman with a leather jacket that looks like it means business all on its own. Julien, he’s downcast, he’s committed and he’s fanatically thorough. You leave the cinema with a lot to reflect upon which has to be the hallmark of a film worth seeing.