Review of Caché (2005) by Blake P — 17 Feb 2012

Georges Laurent (Auteuil) is a successful TV literary reviewer living wealthily with his wife Anne (Binoche) and his twelve-year old son, and the three lead a pretty normal life-- but their world is rocked when creepy drawings show up from an anonymous person, every drawing showing something violent.

If things can't get stranger, the drawings stop-- but soon they begin receiving video tapes, all done with hidden cameras, with them as the stars. Georges strongly suspects a man (Benichou) who his family tried to adopt in his childhood .

.. a man who Georges did something horrible to ... "Caché" is one of those thrillers where it succeeds very strongly in being suspenseful, scary, and all so creepy, but is never in your face about it, and focuses on things you don't see to create a darker experience.

This may not be my favorite suspense movie, but it is sure one of the ones I appreciate, due to its subtle horrors and the originality of its plot. But in the end, you realize that the thriller plot is really only a mask for what the film really focuses on-- and that's the dramas of real life.

As the plot goes on, we see Juliette Binoche's and Daniel Auteuil's marriage falling apart (they are fantastic in their roles by the way) due to this problem, and we realize that the focus is not just on this creepy problem the characters are facing-- but how they handle it, making this a character study that just happens to be a thriller.

And the fact that it's filmed in documentary style just makes it all the more realistic. "Caché" is a terrific movie with wonderful qualities, but you must be a huge French film fan to really enjoy it.

If you don't like foreign films though, you're missing out on a one of a kind experience. Recommended.