Comment

Aug 02, 2010stuvw27 rated this title 1 out of 5 stars
With so many critics rushing to say how brilliant and brainy this film is I had expected something I could get my teeth into. Well, in one way I suppose I got just that because this picture is like eating taffy: lots of chewing, little nutrition. Other than the appearance of an upper middle class life-style, there is little information given about the character of Georges and Anne Laurent and their relationship. Nothing is given that would plausibly drive the intended story. They were so flat that I suspect we are to read them as symbols of that stratum of French society. Even so, the so-called guilt of Georges seems to me to be more of a plot convenience than real human feelings. And, yes, I see what’s going in the final shot but, while that tells me whodunit this ain’t exactly Hercule Poirot, and I have long since given up caring about this couple as people or, if you prefer, as symbols on the ridiculous path of this moralistic fable. Suffice to say Haneke is not Hitchcock.