Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Daniel Auteuil
Starring: Daniel Auteuil, Grégory Gadebois, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Alice Belaïdi
The success of Anatomy of a Fall has sparked a newfound interest among cinephiles in French courtroom thrillers. Daniel Auteuil will hope to ride that wave with An Ordinary Case, a legal thriller he directs, co-writes (with Steven Mitz) and stars in. The film is inspired by a real life case as detailed by Jean-Yves Moyart, a lawyer turned bestselling author and popular blogger. As such, it lacks the more dramatic elements of the likes of Anatomy of a Fall, and Auteuil's uninspired direction might cruelly be labelled as pedestrian, but the details of the case are enough to keep us engaged.
Auteuil plays Jean Monier, a lawyer who hasn't taken on a major case in 15 years. The last time he got a client off a murder charge the accused went on to kill again, leaving Monier with a shattered reputation. Monier is tempted back by the case of Nicolas Milik (Grégory Gadebois), a soft-spoken, loving father accused of killing his alcoholic wife. The case is complicated by the arrest of another man, Roger Marton (Gaëtan Roussel), the landlord of the local bar where Milik went for a drink on the night of the crime. Convinced that Marton is the real killer and Milik is innocent, Monier takes on the case.
An Ordinary Case occasionally threatens to live down to its title with its no-frills approach to unravelling its story. As is often the case when actors take their place behind the camera, Auteuil's direction is visually uninspired to the point where his film could be mistaken for the sort of TV drama that tends to play on Sunday nights. The one embellishment he adds sees Monier dreaming about being trapped in a bullfighting pen with an angry bull, which is an odd choice. Wouldn't it have made more sense for him to be plagued by nightmares about the killer he allowed to walk free in his last high profile case?
Where An Ordinary Case holds our attention is as a low key showcase for the acting talents of Auteuil and Gadebois. Auteuil convinces us of Monier's quiet determination to save a man he genuinely believes to be innocent. There are scenes that might have been played as shouty confrontations in a more histrionic version of this tale, but Auteuil plays to his strengths as the long time straight man of French cinema. Monier's failure to react in certain circumstances speaks volumes about his self-awareness regarding his damaged professional reputation. As the accused, Gadebois is enigmatic enough to keep us guessing as to whether Monier is right to believe his pleas of innocence, but the bearish actor brings enough of a sympathetic quality to make us want to believe him.
Auteuil and Mitz's script can sometimes confuse us regarding its timeline, and it's unclear whether some scenes are playing out in the present or as flashbacks. I was shocked when the judge revealed we were in just the third and final day of the trial, as it feels like a weeks long affair. A subplot involving Monier passing a case of a teenage bullfighter (the source of Monier's dreams) onto his romantic partner and fellow lawyer Annie (a wasted Sidse Babett Knudsen) adds nothing to the overall narrative, and the effects of the case on Monier's relationship with Annie are merely teased rather than interrogated. We're left to wonder how more satisfying An Ordinary Case might have been in the hands of a more accomplished writer/director, but the case itself is curious enough to keep us invested and the final encounter between Monier and his client makes for a chilling denouement.
An Ordinary Case is on UK/ROI VOD from July 7th.
