If there’s anything better than a court drama, it’s a unique court drama we don’t get that often. Most court dramas are great, but more often than not, they aren’t as unique because most of the time, the lines are clearly drawn between the heroes and villains. And that’s where Anatomy of a Fall comes in. It dares to ask the burning question: “What if nothing is as black or white?” It grips you for almost two and a half hours and won’t let you go.
The best compliment I can give to this movie is this. Imagine you watch this film with two other people. When the movie ends, all three of you can have different ideas of what happened, and you can discuss why you think your theory is better than the other two. There is a fine line between leaving the audience to have their interpretations and just leaving them hanging because we didn’t finish the ending. But this movie is cold, calculating and precise in the best way.
Without giving too much away, this movie is about a family living in the middle of nowhere. The husband falls and dies, and we spend the entire film going through everything, from a great recreation scene to many excellent courtroom scenes to the ending that just underlines everything well. But the main point is how we can quickly jump to a conclusion based on one fight we heard from a day before, how everything goes from there, where every decision is being re-examined through the lens of them being at their worst. This is where Anatomy of a Fall shines; it makes you think about how often we think we know things (for example, about celebrities) based on tiny slivers of their online presence, and based on our perception, we then look to confirm our preconceived bias towards that celebrity (if we like her, we love everything, if we don’t, everything that celebrity does is “the worst” by default), not realising that we don’t know them and what they are dealing with.
What a year 2023 was for Sandra Hüller. As if being nominated for the best leading actress wasn’t enough, she appears in another Oscar-winning movie from 2023, The Zone of Interest, which I can’t wait to watch. What she does in this movie is brilliant because it almost feels like she isn’t acting. Her character feels so real I felt, at times, as if I watched a documentary rather than a narrative movie. She knows how to make those little moments sing; her speech about how she loved her husband and would never kill him was pure perfection. I really hope she will get some brilliant scripts offered because I can see that we have not seen her “peak”, and I can’t wait to witness it because I adored her in this movie.
Who I don’t think is getting as much praise as he should have had is Milo Machado-Graner. He portrays Sandra’s son and the unfortunate key witness, although not really. Do you feel bad for kids of divorce and how ugly it can get for them when “mommy and daddy fight”? Well, imagine if mommy is on trial, being the only suspect of killing daddy, and now, he gets to hear all the dirty, nasty stuff they said to each other. His performance was so pure in the first half and almost adult-like towards the end. Some point to those scenes saying he felt like the classic example of a kid actor being written by adults, but I don’t think that’s fair. We can see that it’s been over a year since this accident, and the trial, I believe, takes a few weeks. I thought he was just forced to grow up much faster than other kids, just as it happens with some kids of divorce when you have to put your childhood aside because you recognise you are needed. Is it fair? No. Is it necessary? Unfortunately. His final court appearance and speech were perfect. I won’t say what happens, but you aren’t sure about anything after that, beginning with whether he is being truthful or not.
And that was the brilliance of this movie. Anatomy of a Fall is, on the surface, a courtroom drama, whodunit, if you will. But in reality, the movie almost doesn’t give a fuck about that, and it’s much more focused on different themes. Like all the men witnesses present a strong case against Sandra’s character, but all the women’s witnesses present a strong case for her. This movie explores the themes of guilt by proxy (as her lawyer says: “That’s not the point, you are his wife, so you are the suspect.“) and, most importantly, how the verdict doesn’t change much. This movie shows us openly that no matter what happens, for some, you will always be guilty or not guilty without spelling it out for you.
Everything about Anatomy of a Fall feels just right. It’s not a short movie by any means, but I can’t imagine a scene not being there because everything compliments each other. There is little to no score because it is in the silence where this movie shouts the most. There is also a great dog performance that can’t be understated, and his key scene was brilliant. I was so happy to see Messi (that’s the dog’s name) at the 2024 Oscars (link here). My point is I don’t have anything negative to say. This movie left me thinking about everything I just saw, and throughout it, I thought I knew for certain what actually happened. The truth is, I don’t know. Nobody does besides Sandra, and whether her character is guilty or not, she will have to live with this for the rest of her life.
Overall, Anatomy of a Fall is a brilliant film. It doesn’t spoon-feed you anything; it relies on you navigating these grey areas, where nobody in this movie is a good person or a “hero” in the old-fashioned way. This movie showcases flawed individuals and one of those just so happens to be on trial for that. As I mentioned in the beginning, there are three different theories you can come up with about what happened, each as probable as the next one, and it’s only up to you where you land. I landed in “I love this movie.”
That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!
Until next time,
Luke