Movie Review: 'Anatomy of a Fall' is a Must See Court Room Drama

Anatomy of a Fall (2023)

Directed by Justine Triet

Written by Justine Triet, Arthur Harari

Starring Sandra Huller, Swann Arlaud, Milo Machado Graner

Release Date August 23rd, 2023

Published December 11th, 2023

A man is found dead in a pool of his own blood lying outside of his home. Tragically, the first person to find his body is his young son, a boy who was partially blinded in an accident several years earlier. He can see up close and it's not until he's up close to the body of his late father that the gravity of what he can see really hits him. The boy screams for his mother who comes running. The police are called and a grueling investigation is set to occur to determine how the man got from the attic of the home where he was installing insulation to being dead on the ground outside of his home.

Suicide is the story that Sandra Voyter (Sandra Huller) is going with but there are questions about her account of what occurred. Sandra has lied about key details of what led to her husband's death. She lies about how close they were, she lies about having had a screaming argument with him. Caught in the midst of all of this is the boy, Daniel (Milo Machado-Graner), whose memory of that day will be the key to unlocking what happened that day. Did Sandra murder her husband after a particularly nasty argument? Did dad take his own life by throwing himself out of a third story window? That's the mystery that drives Anatomy of a Fall.

Directed by Justine Triet, Anatomy of a Fall is a gripping courtroom thriller. Featuring an icy and fierce leading performance by Sandra Huller, Anatomy of a Fall separates itself from the legal drama genre by taking what is familiar and simply doing it better. It helps a great deal that we are in a French courtroom and not an American one. The French, according to this movie, my only reference point, follow a much more loose structure. Lawyers for the prosecution and defense are allowed to linger over theories and converse with people who are not currently on the witness stand. It's strange to watch if you've never seen a court room thriller in France and that raises the bar for this relatively creaky genre.

I was captivated when the prosecuting attorney turned from the person who was testifying and began addressing Huller's Sandra directly to get her reaction in real time to what the witness had alleged. In an American courtroom this would be out of line and would like get a contempt citation. In France, this is normalized behavior and Sandra is forced to address the evidence presented as it is presented. The prosecutor can turn heel and speak to Sandra as if she were on the witness stand at all times. This does give Sandra a chance to respond to all of the evidence presented but it's also intentionally jarring as Sandra is given no chance to be ready when the spotlight falls on her.

The court structure of Anatomy of a Fall is enough to create a gripping legal story but it takes a truly great lead performance to bring it all together and that is certainly what we get from Sandra Huller as author Sandra Voyter. Though she maintains her innocence throughout the movie, you can sense that she's holding things back, hiding things away, and that leads you to, at the very least, wonder whether or not she could have killed her husband. The film smartly lays out the case of how the murder could have happened while deftly avoiding a deliberate recreation that might tip the hand of the movie.

Triet doesn't want us to see Sandra as the killer, even in a dream scenario. Rather, she allows the court case to frame our feelings about Sandra and allows the room for Huller to reveal the character, her flaws, and the reasons that might make her appear guilty. Poor young Daniel is trapped amidst the two theories about his father's death, unable to fully reconcile either story. Torn between believing his mother and hearing horrible things about his mother and how she has slept around during her marriage, Daniel struggles with the adult task of deciding what is true and not true about his mother.

In the best scene in the movie, we find out that the late husband had recorded one his last arguments with his wife. This scene is intricately scripted and performed with heated passion. Both husband and wife are going for the jugular in this argument with the husband pressing all of Sandra's buttons and Sandra saving her strength for an argument ending fury before it descends into violent chaos.

It's incredible to hear an argument like this, one that doesn't shine a good light on either husband or wife but is not so definitive in vilifying either husband or wife. Both said extraordinary things in this argument but, as Sandra's lawyer cleverly points out, this argument sounds familiar. It sounds like the kind of fight that many husbands and wives have had when they are fighting for the last passionate breaths of a dying marriage.

This is just one of several incredibly gripping exchanges in Anatomy of a Fall. It showcases the kind of argument that only two people who are intimately aware of each other's flaws can have. It contains all of the petty jealousies and resentments that arise in a long term relationship. It contains the kind of cruel recriminations that only someone who has known you for years could use against you.

You know that thing you apologized for years ago, one major argument that your partner assured you that they had forgiven you for? The kind of thing that comes up when someone who loves you is trying to say something hurtful. That's what Anatomy of a Fall gets so very right about long term relationships, when someone knows you so well that they can surgically cut to your heart in an argument, that's the kind of argument we are witnessing and attempting to parse in Anatomy of a Fall.

Anatomy of a Fall is 2 hours and 30 minutes long but it never feels that way. The film unfolds its story with patience and attention to detail but never lingers to long. The story avoids tangents and keeps us fully immersed in Sandra's space, her thought process, and how she struggles with how her life has ended up at this point. She's been sad and lonely for years. She's blamed her husband for their son's accident and never fully forgiven him and that resentment and pain is now forced to the surface by this court case and it is wildly compelling. Then that ending arrives, a choice is made by the youngest and least qualified to make such a choice and it's heart-rending to watch it unfold. You might want to look away but you won't be able to as this final blow is landed.

Anatomy of a Fall is one of the best court room dramas I've ever seen and one of the best movies of 2023. Sandra Huller is getting tremendous Oscar buzz for her performance and it is fully deserved. This performance more than lives up to the hype. Her Sandra Voyter is tired, downright exhausted by managing her marriage and her successful life as an author. Her husband's ego has raged out of control and she has born the brunt of his failures. She loves him but he's become a burden to her and she can no longer hide that fact.

That said, that doesn't mean that she murdered him. That's the angry, brutal heart of Anatomy of a Fall, Sandra may have been done with her husband and her marriage but it doesn't mean she decided to kill him. The trial takes her anger, resentment, and exhaustion and uses her manner to build a case for murder. Imagine if someone combed through the terrible arguments you've had with partners that didn't end with one of you dead. Now imagine if you had to defend what you said in these arguments in a context where someone is framing you as a bitter, angry, and perhaps, a killer. That's just part of what you will be forced to confront in this brilliant film.

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