by Mark Demetrius
Worth: $15.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Daniel Auteuil, Gregory Gadebois, Sidse Babett Knudsen
Intro:
… worth seeing …
Based on real events, this is essentially an old-fashioned courtroom drama, but a good and well acted one, with strong characterisations. When it’s at its best, it is powerful, chilling even — but there are undeniable longueurs.
Daniel Auteuil, who not only directed the film but also co-wrote the screenplay, plays lawyer Jean Monier. He has, understandably, refrained from defending anyone ever since a man for whom he secured an acquittal on a murder charge turned out to be guilty and went on to kill again. But now, there is the ghastly but intriguing case of Nicolas Milik (Gregory Gadebois).
Milik is accused of fatally stabbing his wife, the mother of his five children. He maintains his innocence, yet is curiously diffident, if not hostile about fighting to prove it. If anything, that makes Monier all the more determined to go in to bat for him. The unfortunate woman was apparently a chronic and uncontrolled alcoholic, while Milik himself is a lonely individual whose main redeeming feature is an evident devotion to his kids. His only adult friend is a barman with a contrastingly macho attitude to life’s problems. And so, the plot thickens, and after three years in custody, the trial begins …
The Thread is rather overlong, but the claustrophobic atmosphere, together with the two impeccable central performances, make it definitely worth seeing. And it’s not predictable.
