Pour elle (2008) - film review

Julien and Lisa are a perfectly ordinary married couple.  They have a young son and lead an uneventful but happy life.  Then, one day, police officers turn up on their doorstep with a warrant for Lisa’s arrest.  Julien stands by helplessly as the woman he loves is arrested, tried for murder and sent to prison for twenty years.  Convinced that his wife is innocent, Julien decides to risk everything by helping her to escape.  Just how far is he prepared to go for her...?

Love Story or Mission Impossible?  Pour elle is one of those films which look impressive until you start applying the plausibility test (i.e. ask yourself: would this happen in the real world?), at which point it falls down faster and more resoundingly than the walls of Jericho.  A truly incredible plot (which owes something to Kafka) provides the flimsiest of pretexts for a prison break-out movie of the American variety.  It is a shame that the story is so far-fetched because Pour elle is, its plot contrivances notwithstanding, quite a well-made thriller.  The film is directed with flair, vibrantly shot, slickly edited, and energised by a strong central performance from Vincent Lindon.   For his debut feature, Fred Cavayé could have done a lot worse.  If only he had hired a decent scriptwriter...

The film poses that age-old question: how far would you go to show someone you loved them?   Guillaume Canet addressed this question (surprisingly without reference to chocolate confectionary) in his earlier, and far superior thriller, Ne le dis à personne (2006), and did so without venturing into a parallel universe in which policemen knock down your front door at breakfast time and drag you off to prison before you have finished your Coco Pops.  If Pour Elle tells us anything it is that Fred Cavayé is either blissfully ignorant of criminal procedure in modern day France or has been watching far too many American crime series.

It is not only the plot that lacks credibility; the characters are pretty unconvincing as well.  Vincent Lindon at least makes an attempt to bring some reality to his part, although you have to wonder how desperate, stupid or obsessed a man must be to do what his character does in this film.  The rest of the cast can’t even be bothered to act, so no wonder their characters resemble the walking clichés that they are.  Diane Kruger’s character does little to endear her to use with her self-pitying histrionics and you can’t help wishing that someone would put her out of her misery, Tarantino-style.  Mired in toe-curling pathos and absurd plot contrivance, Pour elle would be a very hard sell if it were not for Cavayé’s superb direction and Lindon’s solid performance.  For some, however, even this may not be enough to bridge the credibility gap.

© James Travers 2010

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