Customer Reviews

In His Hands ( Entre ses mains ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - France ]

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Anne Fontaine's disappointing Entre Ses Mains aka In His Hands is one of those films you've seen long before you actually watch it because it's been made by people who've seen too many films and think the best way to create a classic is to homage one somebody else made earlier to death. In this case the victim is Claude Chabrol's Le Boucher, relocated from a small village to a very metropolitan Lille, with Jean Yanne's butcher and possible serial killer and Stephane Audran's schoolteacher who falls in love with him reworked into Benoit Poelvoorde's insomniac vet prone to depression and Isabelle Carré's insurance claims adjuster. There are a few new wrinkles added to the mix - Carré's character is happily married but still drifts into a near-affair in spite of her doubts - and it's easy to see why the actors were attracted to the film since it places the emphasis firmly on the characters and performances rather than the thriller plot. Poelvoorde in particular is excellent, doing a Robin Williams to shake off his comic persona to reveal something more damaged underneath (although he had ventured into serial killer territory long before Williams with Man Bites Dog). There is one genuinely suspenseful sequence prior to the film's murder scene as well as a neat bit of business with a bloodstained cat, but once you make the Chabrol connection you know exactly where this is headed. Unfortunately in the intervening 25 years that particular road has become very well travelled and Fontaine and her co-writer Julien Boivent certainly haven't made any improvements. Including a scene where Poelvoorde invites Carré to watch him operate on a sleeping lion only makes you realise that they really liked Manhunter as well... It's not terrible by any means, just terribly familiar.

The French PAL DVD offers a decent 1.85:1 widescreen transfer with optional English subtitles, though the extras - commentary by Fontaine and Carre, two featurettes and trailer - are all unsubtitled.