Le Serpent

France, 2006. Directed by Eric Barbier. Yvan Attal, Clovis Cornillac, Pierre Richard, Simon Abkarian, Minna Haapkylä, Olga Kurylenko.

Vincent (Attal) is a fashion photographer whose marriage to Hélène (Haapkylä), is teetering on the brink of collapse, with Hélène threatening to take herself and their two children away to live in Germany. The final decision will be made by the judge who is hearing their case; meanwhile a distracted Vincent finds himself professionally compromised when he is falsely accused of rape by a model who, it transpires, is not quite what she seems. When she turns up dead in the boot of his car he realises he’s in big trouble. Behind the frame-up is a former schoolfriend, Plender (Cornillac), who has his own reasons for wanting to destroy Vincent…. Based on a novel by the British writer Ted Lewis (of Get Carter fame), the film is a slick, fast-moving psychological thriller with good central performances by Attal and Cornillac. It’s Hitchockian in style and atmosphere and mostly delivers the goods, although I felt it ran out of steam somewhat about two-thirds of the way through. The final act allows us time to think through the absurdity of what we’re watching, which is a shame, but it’s still an entertaining two hours.