XDA

Went to see the popular new French movie Cache (Hidden) with daughter Alex at the Esquire. I'm not sure she liked it. I wasn't sure as the credits rolled whether I liked it. I'd call it a thriller but, except for one 10 second scene, it had no thrills--more like the opposite of thrills. Still, it was pretty good, in a pedestrian, typically Gallic, cinema verite sort of way. And it is impenetrable. You can get an idea of what the last scene means, but it won't be the Truth. I quite liked it after it sunk in some. Here is the cool thing, The lead woman is the rapidly becoming more matronly but still very beautiful Juliett Binoche who plays a woman named Anne Laurent; her husband Georges is played by Daniel Auteuil, and they are both very good. There are two Algerians in the film, playing father and son, Maurice Benichou and Walid Afkir respectively. The director is a probably totally nuts guy named Michael Haneke. He's called an Austrian but he was born in Munchen during WWII. Here's the weird part; the director's earlier film, Code inconnu: Recit incomplet de divers voyages (Code Unknown: Incomplete Tales of Several Journeys), also had Juliette Binoche playing Anne Laurant, who had a husband named Georges; and the same two Algerian actors playing father and son. It's like deja vu all over again.

No sex, no violence (or not much) and really no action. Kind of a psychological non-thriller, but I expected horrible things to happen as the movie progressed and it was pretty tense. Here's the question to keep in mind as the credits role. If your first thought on seeing the last scene end is the normal one, then why was the son, Pierrot so angry with his mother but relatively OK with his father? The question cannot be definitively answered. Definitely worth a look, but you could just as easily hate it. It's in French, it's 117 minutes long and it often drags. Oh, swimming pool victory scene is a big clue, I think. And is a kiss on the inside of the wrist a friendly gesture? Just asking.