There is something about fathers and husbands going out of their league in rescuing their, well…sons/daughters or wives. Kamal Hassan did it in thespian style, in Mahanadhi. Jean Reno did it brilliantly, in Luc Besson’s Wasabi.
This seems slightly more heart-tugging than, say a lover boy rescuing his girl, perhaps because it is done to death.
Fred Cavayé’s Pour elle (For her) too is a similar tale, where you have a everyman-school-teacher, played by Vincent Lindon going out of his way to rescue his wife.
The set-up is convincing and the fact it all moves so fast is a huge advantage. With his droopy eyes, Lindon seems like the perfect person to be both everyman and the learning-the-ropes hero who hatches a laboriously constructed plan to rescue his wife.
Lindon’s young son, Oscar, is used brilliantly across the film to bring in the emotional angle and it works like a charm. The kid, right from the beginning when he starts to bawl as his mother is being taken away, does a great job. In the later portions, the kid mutters minimally to his mother showing how far away she’s gone from him.
Lindon’s attempts are refreshingly different – any other movie would have desperately wanted to focus on him trying to find the unknown woman who was responsible for the crime for which his wife is jailed for – but this film steers completely clear off that route and takes a more daring, but implausible route. The implausibility of it makes the film all the more enjoyable.
As Lindon plans, his desperate attempt to rob, to get some money to complete his mission takes the film to a new high even if those portions are the least convincing since the otherwise docile lead character is shown as going way over his domain…all too suddenly!
But yes, all those make for a really tense thriller and a tight one, at that. Once the rescue has been achieved (in a thrilling hospital scene), you find yourself cheering for Lindon against all odds. There are nice, intelligent touches in how the post-rescue escape is planned, right up to the way the couple, along with their son get into a flight to flee France.
Of the cast, Diane Kruger seems like the best choice to play the victimized wife – it works even better than the other jailed-wife saga, Nothing But The Truth, which had Kate Beckinsale behind bars while her husband came into provide the conjugal visits.
As I finished watching the film, I was stuck by its simple, but elegant plot. It is universal and can be easily adapted in India – Bollywood or even Tamil cinema. I’m sure someone would be making this in India soon – the hero’s role is perfect for someone like Aamir Khan (in Hindi), Vikram/ Surya/ Prithviraj (in Tamil) and perhaps Venkatesh (in Telugu). But, unfortunately, it’d most probably end up with Emraan Hashmi in the lead and directed by Mohit Suri.
Pour elle poster courtesy: Cinema Clock
