Film review: Anything for Her

Published on Thursday 4 June 2009 19:02

ANYTHING FOR HER (15) ** DIRECTED BY: FRED CAVAYÉ STARRING: VINCENT LINDON, DIANE KRUGER, LANCELOT ROCH

LIKE the surprise 2007 French hit Tell No One, Anything for Her is another Gallic attempt to update the type of everyman thrillers Hitchcock used to crank out. Unlike Tell No One, it never succeeds in suspending our disbelief long enough to buy into its preposterous premise. That premise revolves around schoolteacher Julien (Vincent Lindon) whose wife, Lisa (Diane Kruger), has been imprisoned for a murder she claims she didn't commit. With all hope of an appeal against her conviction disappearing, and with a young son she can't bear to be without, she becomes suicidal, a development that forces Julien to start planning a way to break her out of prison before she has the chance to kill herself.

With the help of an ex-con who has written a book about his multiple escapes from jail, he begins hatching an elaborate plan that will see him become embroiled in the underworld as he attempts to secure new identities for his family and enough courage – and criminal moxie – to carry out his rescue attempt. Set over three years, writer/director Fred Cavay attempts to give the film some kick with a flash-backing structure and plenty of quick edits and hand-held camera work, but he can't keep things moving fast enough to prevent plot holes emerging, starting with his decision to reveal Lisa's innocence early on – a development that makes her conviction seem as flimsy as Harrison Ford's in The Fugitive.