This is tense from the outset and for two and a half hours it rarely lets up. As we meet Sandra (Sandra Hüller), she’s being interviewed in her snow surrounded chalet home. Until her husband starts irritatingly blasting calypso music upstairs. We don’t really get to meet him until in the pre title scene he takes the apocryphal fall. He’s found be his partially blind son Daniel (Milo Machado-Graner) and his dog Snoop. The question is of course, did he fall? There’s obvious suspicion. Sandra leads us through her version of events as she recounts them to Vincent (Swann Arlaud), a friend… and lawyer, possibly something more. He’s there to help Sandra, but he points out what we’re all thinking. Sandra is a murderer. We’re in dark scandi thriller territory and it’s well executed. Leading us and Sandra through awkward reenactments, that uncover the hidden details. Details that Daniel’s blindness alone can see. He’s to be the star witness in the trial, but with the suspect being his mother, checks are put in place. One being Marge (Jehnny Beth) who I’m a little surprised to see after last seeing her on stage singing in the band Savages. She’s very good, as is Hüller, Arlaud and Samuel Maleski who plays the deceased. That pivotal opening scene anchors everything that follows, with a slowly unfolding whodunnit played out in the courtroom and the audiences minds, deftly revealing its narrative in a natural way as it digs its way to the bottom of a thoughtfully psychological drama.
7/10
