Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Anatomy of a Fall’ on Hulu, a Riveting, Oscar-Winning French Courtroom Drama

The Academy awarded Anatomy of a Fall (now streaming on Hulu) the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, and nobody in their right mind should quibble with that. The film also enjoyed best picture and best director nominations, the latter for Justine Triet, who co-wrote the film with Arthur Harari. And they wrote it specifically for star Sandra Huller, who enjoyed not just a best actress nomination, but a full-blown international career breakthrough (which was also aided by her equally terrific performance in The Zone of Interest). And while Oscar accolades can be, shall we say, occasionally questionable, in this case they got it right, putting a well-deserved spotlight on one of the best movies of 2023.

ANATOMY OF A FALL: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Samuel Meleski (Samuel Theis) departed from this world like we all should: While playing a profoundly irritating steel-drum instrumental cover of 50 Cent’s “P.I.M.P.” at deafening volume. One moment, he was in the attic of his chalet in the French countryside, installing insulation; several moments later, he was dead on the ground a couple dozen feet below the attic window, blood from his head pooling in the snow. Was he playing the music to keep him motivated while working? Or was he playing it to drive his wife mad while a student attempted to interview her? Both can be true. Other things could also be true, but these are the most probable reasons. The rest of this movie is about what might’ve happened in the moments between these moments – the moment when he was alive and the moment when he was dead. 

Here’s what we know prior to his wife Sandra Voyter’s (Huller) murder trial: She’s a successful writer who’s published several novels, hence the interview. He’s a struggling writer who gave up to be a teacher. She’s from Germany, but lived in London and moved to France to be with Samuel, who grew up in the chalet. Her French is shaky, but she can speak the language well enough to get by. She and Samuel have an 11-year-old son, Daniel (Milo Machado-Graner), who’s partially blind, and helped by an amazingly trusty sweetheart of a guide dog, Snoop (Messi). Daniel found his father’s body. The autopsy was inconclusive. Investigators analyze blood spatters and measure railings and reconstruct the fall; they ask Sandra about the bruise on her arm, and ask Daniel what he heard that day and he says one thing but later changes his mind and says another, admitting he made a mistake. Sandra’s old friend Vincent (Swann Arlaud) is a lawyer, and will lead the defense. Vincent suggests they avoid an accidental-death defense because it’s not plausible, so they take the angle that Samuel died by suicide. Sandra interrupts him in the middle of a lawyersque spiel: “Stop. Stop. I did not kill him,” she says. Do we believe her?

ONE YEAR LATER. French court – what a trip. French is spoken there, so good luck, Sandra. The lead prosecutor (Antoine Reinartz) asks dozens of leading questions and engages in so much suggestive, slanted and twisted speculative commentary, if this was an American movie set in an American courtroom, two-thirds of the script would be OBJECTION, YOUR HONORs. But that’s OK, I guess, since Vincent and fellow defense lawyer Nour Boudaoud (Saadia Bentaieb) retort with almost as much suggestive, slanted and twisted speculative commentary. The judge (Anne Rotger) lets it all happen, too, so this must be how the French legal system works? And Daniel, well, he’s privy to every terrible detail the lawyers trot out about his father’s death, and the extremities of his parents’ troubled psychological states and relationship. During all this, and at the end of it, I don’t know if we like Sandra or Samuel even if we might relate to this or that about their individual selves or their marriage. But our hearts ache for Daniel, bearing witness to strife, and enduring great pain, and wrestling with questions that have no answers – even if determined by the court, which we’ve already deemed deeply flawed – the key one being, is his mother guilty of killing his father?

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: I never carelessly draw comparison to Fargo, being that it’s the greatest film of all time. But blood on the snow and an absurdist approach to questions of moral certitude put Anatomy of a Fall in the same ballpark. 

Performance Worth Watching: Let’s join the chorus that heaps praise on Huller for such a nuanced and subtly wily performance that exists in the margins of truth. But also let’s not forget how profoundly, aggressively annoying Reinartz is as the wormy prosecutor who poses question after leading question, twisting answers to suit his arguments, and claiming he’s merely in pursuit of the truth. He’s the film’s secret comedy weapon.

Memorable Dialogue: One of the film’s biggest laughs: 

Prosecutor: “The music was a cover of 50 Cent’s ‘P.I.M.P.’, a deeply misogynistic song.”

Nour: “It was an instrumental version!”

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: The crux of Anatomy of a Fall is akin to our notion of what 2 + 2 is. Sure – we all know the answer is 4. But drill deeper, and what it really is, is an approximation of 2 added to an approximation of 2 for a solution that’s approaching 4. In reality, 2 as an absolute certainty does not exist. All things are composed of fuzzy lines, atoms in constant motion rendering electron-microscoped things blurry. Yet we ascribe definitive meaning to the number 2 and solidity to specific types of matter so we have a means to define and comprehend reality; without it, we might go insane. There is no certainty, no truly definitive answers to any questions about the nature of reality. Have a nice day!

And so, too zoom back out a bit, everything in the trial of Sandra Voyter is a matter of interpretation, grand ideas about uncertainty in ruthless microcosm. Anatomy of a Fall is a rigorously intellectual look at a deeply emotional situation. It’s comical how Triet depicts serious human beings attempting to apply objective criteria to a series of occurrences drowning in subjectivity. One expert insists Samuel had to have been pushed, and another insists that’s highly improbable – “but not impossible,” the prosecutor repeatedly interjects, as the expert rolls her eyes, and we do too, because here these professionals are, getting out finer and finer razor blades to split the hairs between “highly improbable” and “not impossible.” It’s as maddening as hearing a profoundly irritating instrumental steel-drum version of 50 Cent’s “P.I.M.P.” countless times in a row.

Triet amplifies the absurdity by establishing Daniel and Snoop as, essentially, key witnesses. Daniel’s is a tragic absurdity, of course – he’s legally blind, the reasons for which exacerbated the rift between his parents, and he’s lost the father he adores. Snoop’s is less tragic, because he’s a dog, of course. And since dogs can’t talk, they can’t communicate with humans with any amount of certainty. Ridiculous as the judge and lawyers and experts in this case can be as they present grandiose speculative theories on Samuel and Sandra’s emotional states and whether they can be considered motives for suicide or murder, at least they stop short of putting Snoop on the witness stand in an attempt to interpret his perspective on their marriage: Did they smell like they loved each other, or hated each other? 

The key here is Daniel. He’s young, and learning about the world, and this trial is quite the education. The camera frequently cuts to him in the gallery, sitting quietly with a furrowed brow, listening intently. As is the case with people who’ve lost their sight, his hearing is enhanced; is he hearing something we’re not? Subtle tones or inflection? The situation of his mother being his caretaker and his testifying in her trial requires a court-appointed monitor, who at one point suggests he accept some degree of certainty where none seems to exist, just so he can function. It feels like the necessary cynicism of human existence.

There’s a level of contrivance to Anatomy of a Fall, which at times seems pointedly engineered to explore Big Ideas. But it’s too exquisitely conceived and assembled, and just too damn provocative for any deeper criticism to take hold. Triet leans on Huller’s ability to make caginess seem earnest, and earnestness seem cagey; it’s a performance finely tuned to the film’s themes. She tangles together the most riveting components of domestic and legal dramas, fashions an excoriatingly honest depiction of the rollercoaster of marriage, and crafts scenes that straddle comedy and tragedy and prod us to question what we see: What’s happening in this courtroom? What’s happening between Vincent and Sandra, who seem to share mutual romantic affection? What’s happening inside Daniel’s head? What’s happening inside Snoop’s head? And all we can do is interpret, interpret, interpret until we think we’re on a path approaching that impossible thing known as the truth.

Our Call: Anatomy of a Fall is not a dog. The exact opposite, actually. STREAM IT.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.