A review of “Anything For Her” – 3/10

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Thrillers are one of my favourite film genres, so I was looking forward to seeing this film. Unfortunately, I came away disappointed.

To be successful a thriller needs to have some sense of events in it being possible; it needs to contain some unexpected plot twists, as well as having strong characters. In my opinion, the film lacked all of these essential requirements. Events were consistently implausible and I just could not believe how quickly the main character changed from an educated, responsible citizen to a violent, out of control criminal. There was no attempt to show the internal moral debate the main character might be experiencing, as to the rights and wrongs of his actions. This would have added some depth and some reality to the narrative. At least Julien was shown to be out of his depth when dealing with the criminal elements he turned to for help.

Ultimately, because I had no empathy with the characters and the situations they found themselves in, the film did not work for me. I felt Julien’s actions to be selfish and irresponsible (as well as being totally implausible) – potentially leading to the couple’s young son losing both parents.  You might be able to accept what he did if you believed it was “all for love”, but unfortunately I felt that Vincent Linden’s acting was so wooden, and totally devoid of emotion – raised eyebrows, scowl, light yet another cigarette – (he must have trained at the Roger Moore School of Acting), that there was no sense of any bond of love between his character (Julien) and his wife (Lisa).

As the film drew to its’ conclusion, I hoped that there would be a twist in the plot to redeem it, (there were plenty of opportunities for this), but nothing happened. The ending was ridiculous.

This was a French attempt at producing a Hollywood style thriller; unfortunately Hollywood usually does it better – with a style and pace that “Anything for Her” lacked.

 

My score out of 10:  3

Disagree?  Why not send me your own review and I will put it on the site (it would be great to have some feedback and reviews from members of the group – rather than just opinions of the critics!)

 

 

 

3 Comments Add yours

  1. Stephanie Edwards says:

    I agree with you Matt, I had seen this a few years ago…that’s why I didn’t come on Friday….I think Hollywood HAVE made a version….I think Russell Crowe was in it,and it was twice as bad!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Matt Nobles says:

      I think it’s called “The Next Three Days”

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      1. Maureen says:

        I wondered what part Liam Neeson would have played. It turned out that he played the criminal escape artist who gave Justin his ideas. I watched a clip. That looked just as bad as the French version..

        Like

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