Anatomy of a Fall, review: a sparkling intellectual thriller that lingers for days

A single moment in time has to be explained, in the enthralling Anatomy of a Fall, until we get to the bottom of it. This event focuses the legal, forensic and psychoanalytical minds of dozens of people, obsesses several, and will define the futures of at least two. Unseen by us and possibly by anyone, it’s the fall of Samuel (Samuel Theis) from the balcony of his chalet in the French Alps. A freak accident is the least likely theory. If he jumped, then, why? If he was pushed, did his wife do it?

Only she, a celebrated German novelist called Sandra Voyter (Sandra Hüller), was at home at the time, having terminated an interview an hour before, because Samuel, to ruin it, was blasting a steel-drum instrumental cover of 50 Cent’s P.I.M.P. at deafening volume on a loop upstairs. (Even the song’s “misogynistic lyrics” get roped into the case for the prosecution.)

Next, Samuel’s body is found in the snow when their teenage son Daniel (an amazing newcomer, Milo Machado Graner) returns from walking his dog, Snoop. When it gets to court, with Sandra standing trial for murder, Daniel’s testimony will be crucial, but he’s an unusual eyewitness, being blind, the consequence of a devastating accident crossing the road when he was four.

What follows – half in English, which the couple always spoke, and half in French, which the lawyers and judge use – is an intellectual thriller of rare calibre, assembled so precisely and deepening so richly it continually takes your breath away. This script is a diamond, co-written by director Justine Triet and Arthur Harari. 

Absolutely everything in it counts, including the tender relationship Sandra has with her defence counsel (a marvellously alert Swann Arlaud), the obnoxious zeal of the prosecutor (Antoine Reinartz), the glimpses inside Daniel’s mind of what may have happened, the competing theories of blood spatter experts, the contents of Sandra’s novels, Samuel’s inability to finish his own, the importance of sex in their relationship, and so on.