Anatomy of a Fall
Year: 2023
Rating: R
Length: 151 minutes / 2.52 hours
It’s interesting how I’ve seen a lot of crime dramas before, but rarely (if ever) have I witnessed one from a foreign perspective. Movies like A Few Good Men (1992) or 12 Angry Men (1957) focus on the American justice system. Watching a murder trial in a foreign language and in a different country’s judiciary style was new and exciting for me. Anatomy of a Fall (2023) does a great job of bringing ambiguity to the proceedings enough times as to make one wonder what truth to believe.
The ability of this film to throw a series of twists into the narrative that makes the whole story flip back and forth between guilty and not guilty is an amazing achievement. That being said, despite the marketing for this film making it seem like there was still a question whether the death was an accident or a purposeful moment of murder, I felt the ending put all the pieces together for a unique revelation that left no doubts in my mind what happened. If anything, it’s a tragedy that a situation like this would be ambiguous enough to even go to trial.
While there may also be many cliche twists throughout, the application of these twists in this film set it apart as a masterpiece of storytelling. Its Best Original Screenplay win was well-deserved, and I’m glad it was at least nominated for some of the other big awards like Best Director and Best Picture. I hope Anatomy of a Fall inspires more movies about foreign courtroom dramas, especially if they end up being as high caliber as this one.
A foreign courtroom drama filled with superb twists, I give Anatomy of a Fall 4.0 stars out of 5.
