Crafty and craftsmanly French thriller, and much fun, from the maker of With a Friend Like Harry, Dominik Moll. Like Harry, it deals with the erosive effects of one couple (or anyhow one-half of one couple) on another, in this case an older couple on a younger couple, a dysfunctional couple on a "model couple." (It even has another mountain chalet as a setting, albeit brief.) A small rodent indigenous to northern Scandinavia and inexplicably extricated from a pipe under a kitchen sink in southern France makes a contribution to the erosion as well. The movie, very measured and steady in its development, might be almost too much fun, might take too much delight in its devilry, a cold-blooded Chabrolian assault on bourgeois contentment, undercutting the suspense with snickers. Certainly the well-tuned ensemble, Laurent Lucas (looking a bit like an earlier Laurent, surname Terzieff), Charlotte Gainsbourg, Charlotte Rampling, and André Dussollier, waste little effort on winning sympathy, yet they manage to generate tremendous tension in their dialogues. An apparent drift into the supernatural realm -- if that doesn't give away too much already -- runs the risk of losing the viewer. There can be no objection to a realistic depiction of the paranormal. The only objection would be that it is unrealistically unaddressed. These people address everything else. (2005) — Duncan Shepherd
This movie is not currently in theaters.