Anatomy of a Fall

Anatomy of a Fall

Marital courtroom dramas continue to breathe life into the genre. Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” begins as a whodunit, but ends up becoming an examination of another kind of fall from grace one that is not literal but rather refers to the decline of a partnership. It shows how often such marital declines can happen in slow motion, over years and years of resentments and betrayals. At its center is Sandra Hüller’s stunning performance as a woman who falls into hell when she is charged with her husband’s murder by a French court. She might just be the most impressive actress this year.

This movie won Cannes’ Palme d’Or because it is more than just a mystery; it looks at marriage from all angles while insinuating we can never really know anybody but ourselves. A bold move for any filmmaker, let alone one making such an overly long (dare I say self-indulgent?) film that sometimes feels too cold to touch even though there are several scenes near its end which could knock you flat on your ass if you’re not careful or were really invested in them emotionally already.

Sandra is played by Hüller, who first appears giving an interview about her life as a famous author (Triet seems fascinated here by writers’ ability/inability to use people around them). The interview starts getting flirtatious as loud music thumps from upstairs in this isolated cabin surrounded by snow somewhere in the French Alps. It’s Samuel (Samuel Theis), her husband, playing 50 Cent’s “P.I.M.P.” on repeat at full blast in instrumental form. He wants to ruin this thing for her. He wants that interviewer out of here so he can fight with his wife again.

In the apartment above theirs, Daniel (Milo Machado Graner), their son, takes their dog Snoop out for an extra long walk. When he comes back, Samuel is in the snow with a bleeding head wound. Did he fall from the attic where he was working? Did he jump? Or was he pushed?

For nearly two and a half more hours, “Anatomy of a Fall” essentially functions as a procedural about an investigation and trial into the death of Samuel. Not one person who testifies has ever met Sandra or Samuel or Daniel, but it’s their lives that are being put under this microscope for every decision made not just that day but since their wedding almost forever ago.

I have never seen a movie capture how much personal baggage flies out when a death is ruled inconclusive. Samuel’s therapist says he wasn’t suicidal, but he only knew what Sam let him see. The interviewer is asked to comment on how Sandra seemed to her what does she know about anything beyond that room they were in today? We only get part of anybody’s state of mind.

Sometimes it feels like Sandra’s personality is being tried here; other times yes, it does seem quite possible she did this thing.

Triet might seem like she’s playing “Anatomy of a Fall” as a mystery, but she is never manipulative or withholding; this film would have been better off without some gamesmanship that a lesser filmmaker might have relied on in telling this story. Yes, there is a puzzle here and I do believe it gets solved, but that’s not important. What Triet is after is an examination of how couples communicate or fail to and what that failure can lead to. It matters that neither Sandra nor Samuel speaks her or his native language English becomes their common ground and Daniel has poor eyesight from an accident. We don’t understand each other. We don’t see each other.

Hüller is exceptional at keeping much of Sandra’s motives and half-buried skeletons interior. She has thought through every single thing about the character; it feels like such a worked out, lived in performance that you can almost detect the backstory humming beneath each scene. How does a woman like Sandra get to the point where her husband suddenly drops dead and her whole life goes on trial?

And what does it do to her? She doesn’t do melodrama, so when the film climaxes emotionally in an intense flashback, it’s devastating for how real it is. There’s a much worse version of “Anatomy of a Fall” that relies on overcooked whodunit and melodrama; this one is all character-driven, and Triet’s trust in Hüller grounds every moment.

The movie sometimes seems like it needs 151 minutes less than it actually runs, though that duration adds to its feeling more like literature than genre storytelling. The lengthiness allows us to really feel the cold in Sandra and Samuels’ home both because of the snow outside and due to all warmth having leeched out of this family. How do we move past resentment? Infidelity? The sense that we don’t trust our partners? Or worse, that we don’t care about them? “Anatomy of a Fall” asks big questions about its characters but finds most of its power in knowing it doesn’t have all the answers.

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