Proof is irrelevant in the brilliant courtroom drama ‘Anatomy of a Fall’
In the year’s most captivating performance, German actress Sandra Hüller plays a novelist accused of murdering her husband. ‘Anatomy of a Fall,’ directed/co-written by French filmmaker Justine Triet, never reveals the “objective” truth. The truth is unknowable, and so we’re only left to decide between the improbabilities.
Hüller, a breakout in the 2016 German comedy “Toni Erdmann” and the upcoming Holocaust-set drama “Zone of Interest,” plays Sandra, a writer we first meet being interviewed by a young admirer at her remote home in the French mountains. Loud music begins playing from upstairs, a clear passive-aggressive move by Sandra’s husband (Samuel Maleski, who goes largely unseen until an extended flashback later in the film). The interviewer leaves, as does the couple’s son, Daniel (Milo Machado-Graner), who takes the family dog Snoop on a walk through the snowy surroundings. Daniel is partially blind, stemming from an accident early in life. It’s Daniel and Snoop who later stumble upon the husband’s body lying dead in the snow.
Sandra claims to have been asleep. She thinks he fell from the attic. The police, meanwhile, notice details that don’t align with an accidental fall. Sandra soon hires an old attorney friend (Swann Arlaud), who tells her that her only chance to defend against a murder charge is to persuade the court that her husband committed suicide.
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