Anatomy of a Fall Review: A Tense Crime Drama!

When a tragic death occurs it is an instinct to think, who’s at fault? Was a crime committed? If so, who is the killer? If a case is ruled a homicide, a trial in court is the next step to find out who is guilty or who is innocent. However, what many courtroom films do not touch on is that sometimes even if one person is proven guilty, that doesn’t mean everyone else involved is an innocent person, especially when dealing with a marriage.

Sandra (Sandra Hüller) is being interviewed about her work as a writer one afternoon while her husband Samuel (Samuel Theis) is working on the third floor of their house doing renovations. When his music becomes too loud to continue their conversations, the interviewer leaves, Sandra heads to her room, and her son Daniel takes the dog out for a walk. When Daniel gets back, his father Samuel is lying dead in the snow. The question that director Justine Triet asks her audience is not how did Samuel die, but why did he die.

Anatomy of a Fall has a successful balance of courtroom drama while maintaining a substantial amount of the film outside the courtroom where the audience is given more “evidence” of Sandra and Samuel’s marriage than inside. Triet creates much tension following Sandra’s interactions with her son Daniel (Milo Machado Graner) and Vincent because it is still unknown whether Sandra is as reliable of a character as she is letting on. The film’s main examination is on Sandra and Samuel’s marriage and how jealousy, failures, and tragedy play a part in either the strength or weakness of a relationship. Just as much as the audience begins to unravel the case they are also unraveling the intricacies of a marriage that feels all too real.

Anatomy of a Fall also brings up how we as people love an interesting narrative, one that seems more rooted in fiction but one that satisfies our need for drama and scandal. Sandra as a writer has a skill for creating stories and developing characters that teeter the line between fact and fiction, so much so that her stories begin to be dissected to satisfy the more interesting narrative of a wife killing her husband rather than an accident being the source of his death. Incorporating this element brought together the story of Sandra and Samuel’s marriage as it overlaps with society’s desire for a scandalous narrative.

From a child’s perspective, Anatomy of a Fall utilizes its story to also exemplify the pain that a child must go through feeling pulled to differentiating sides between their parents. Daniel is at odds because believing his mother’s narrative puts at the forefront that his father “abandoned” the family if he committed suicide.

However, siding with his now deceased father would mean seeing his mother as a villain either killing him or figuratively pushing him to his eventual fate. It ties in the theme of children being the casualties of parental struggles in a way that is elevated by the tension-filled plot but can be felt by any child whose parents struggled with their marriage. Anatomy of a Fall is a riveting drama filled with suspense and ambiguity that keeps the audience glued to the screen, knowing no matter what, nobody will get out unscathed.

‘Anatomy of a Fall’ Rating – 4.5/5

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