Reviewed by Toby Weidmann
Stars Vincent Lindon, Diane Kruger, Lancelot Roch, Olivier Marchal, Hammou Graia, Liliane Rovere, Olivier Perrier, Moussa Maaskri, Rémi Martin, Thierry Godard
Written by Fred Cavayé & Guillaume Lemans
Certification UK 15 | France U
Runtime 96 minutes
Directed by Fred Cavayé
Anything For Her is something of an oddity, taking an established genre, the prison break film, and giving it a unique twist by setting the action outside the jail rather than within it. The set-up sees the beautiful Lisa (Diane Kruger) wrongly given a lengthy sentence in prison for murder, and subsequently becoming a suicide risk, so her doting husband Julien (Vincent Lindon) decides there’s nothing else for it but to break her out and abscond with their young son to far flung lands before the French authorities know what’s hit them.
It’s a premise that is both exciting and unusual and immediately marks debut writer-director Fred Cavayé as someone to watch, it’s just a shame that the final film doesn’t quite live up to its promise. Unnecessarily told in flashback – the technique only really pays off during the film’s disturbing opening minutes, jarringly cutting between scenes of bloody violence and domestic bliss – the film’s biggest problem is that it pushes the boundaries of belief that little bit too far, with several pivotal moments in the plot leaving you choking on your popcorn with muffled cries of disgruntlement caught in your throat.
The core of the movie relies on Julien convincing as both a very real and relatable character and someone who could pull off such a formidable stunt. But Julien is no ex-secret service agent or army infiltration specialist, nor is he some ace escapologist or local crimelord; he’s a humble language teacher at a Parisian secondary school. As educated and intelligent as he clearly is, his encounters with Paris’ criminal underbelly are far too easily overcome, bar one early botched encounter, and his moral slide from family man into unstoppable hardcase stretches plausibility. Equally, the final prison break relies as much upon dumb luck as it does precise planning and outwitting of the police.
And yet, the film also has some real highs. The actual escape itself, despite its flaws, is genuinely thrilling. With snappy editing and a heady pace, Cavayé shows he has a real flare for tense action and, this being a film made outside the Hollywood machine, there’s a nagging doubt throughout that not all of the family unit will escape unharmed. The casting is also impeccable: Lindon adds veritas to the brooding Julien; Kruger puts in an unnerving performance as Lisa; and the subsidiary roles are filled with some of France’s best, most notably Olivier Marchal (the mastermind behind 36 Quai Des Orfèvres, returning to the opposite side of the camera again) and Hammou Graïa, who plays the tough investigating copper hot on their trail. On top of this, Anything For Her’s setting is far from the picture postcard attractions familiar to British holidaymakers, this is Parisian suburbia, with its everyday beauty and grimy side wonderfully captured by cinematographer Alain Duplantier.
Anything For Her is certainly another stylish addition to France’s recent spate of exciting thrillers and what it lacks in plausibility it makes up for in enthusiasm. If Cavayé can take the peaks and lose the troughs from this lesson learned, his sophomore movie could be irresistible.