Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Is that all there is?, January 2, 2007
A lot of the negative reviews of this film seem to come from people who don't like arthouse cinema, and/or political art, and/or ambiguity, and/or subtitles. Accordingly, a lot of people who appreciate some or all of those things might dismiss the negative reviews. I dig all of the above, but I think critics have lavishly overpraised Cache. The political subtext is too near the surface to tell us anything beyond Georges' brief but welcome account of the actual Oct. 17 massacre. The characters are underdeveloped, and their relationship therefore isn't engaging; I don't get how anyone who has seen "Knife in the Water" or, hell, "Dead Calm" can consider this a great psychological thriller. The oft-repeated notion that the film delivers "gasps" is laughable. For good or ill, that isn't remotely this film's game. I like the creepy evocation of voyeurism, especially in the film's gradual blurring of lines between its own narrative and the videotapes, but by the time the last scene dropped the big "Huh?," nothing about the story, themes, or emotional texture of Cache made me care to ponder for more than a few seconds what the hell had happened. Based on the many great reviews by smart and thoughtful people, I expected a lot from this film. I haven't been so disappointed in a long time.
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11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
psychotic withdrawal, July 5, 2006
As a boy of 6 Georges Laurent (Daniel Auteil) was responsible for what some might consider to be an atrotious crime: he lied about something and the result was that another boy's life was changed forever. Arguably you cannot hold a six-year-old responsible for the fate of another child and yet what is fascinating is that even when Georges Laurent has reached middle-age he still refuses to acknowledge anything like remorse or regret. His way of dealing with his own demons is to withdrawal into himself, to sleep, but even that is no escape for the past still presses in on him through recurring dreams.
As far as we know Georges has been having these dreams even before the videos start arriving and he may have been having them his entire life. This may explain why as a middle-aged man Georges is bitter and suffers from an inability to connect to others. Instead of connecting to other people he isolates himself behind a wall of books and videos (every wall in his house is lined with books and/ or videos). It would seem Georges prefers the impersonality of books and films to people. Thus it is fitting that he should be a host of a television book chat show for on the show he simply asks a set of formulaic questions, and he can control the content (as well as his own persona) with editing. Georges' wife Anne organizes all of their social functions and really it would seem that the group of friends is really her reponsibility, not his. At social gatherings he seems too preoccupied with his own life to give any attention to others. Georges simply seems frozen and remote. When the mysterious packages start arriving he thinks he knows where they are coming from (even though in truth we never know where they are coming from or why they are being sent) but he refuses to share his thoughts with his wife. This causes extreme marital stress and Anna (Juliette Binoche) is pushed to her breaking point--not so much because she fears the tapes or what they might mean but because she fears that her husband cannot tell her the truth about himself or anything else. Their own son, interestingly named Pierrot (who is approximately the same age as Georges was when the events happened), also suffers because his parents cannot tell him exactly what it is that is causing all of the stress in their lives. This family is not simply dysfunctional, it is in a state of total breakdown.
The film is reminiscent of Haneke's THE PIANO TEACHER because this film is also about a sociopath. What makes this film potentially more disturbing, however, is that while THE PIANO TEACHER did shocking things we could at least attempt to explain these things away by reference to her traumatic childhood. But in CACHE Georges, a young boy of six brought up with every conceivable privilege, does a shocking thing and we have no way of understanding why. How can a six-year old do something so cruel? And then keep that cruel act locked up inside for so long? On that day when he was six he ruined not only the other boys life but his own as well. We might say to ourselves that he could not have possibly known exactly what it was that he was doing and why he was doing it but can we know that for certain?
I think the film asks where does cruelty come from, and where does selfishness come from and where does racism come from? What are the reasons, what are the rationales behind these things? And since we cannot say with any certainty where these things come from we feel helpless to find a cure.
A disturbing film that will annoy those who feel like its unfair of filmmakers to give us clues with no real way of finding any definitive solutions to the "mystery". The film will appeal to those who like psychological case studies.
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11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The film is a mirror, July 27, 2006
Reviewer reactions to this film seem to say more about the reviewer than they do about the film, especially the negative ones. I too watched the film expecting "merely" a good thriller. I, however, was captivated by the slow long shots and the building tension. Like many, I initally found the ending sudden, unsatisfying, and unsettling. What! It's over now?!? But knowing that the film was highly acclaimed led me to immediately question that reaction. I scanned backwards and watched the final 5 minutes or so several times. I also THOUGHT about what I had seen, carefully. I went to bed convinced that I had seen a very good, possibly great film, but not sure that I had understood it yet. The next morning I couldn't stop thinking about the film. That is one definition of a great film.
Rather than complain about the way the movie was put together, one could decide to investigate why it is done that way, why so many others speak of this as an amazing film. For example, one reviewer below claims that the wife character (Juliette Binoche) is "not guilty of anything". I wouldn'tnecessarily say that. The film suggests very strongly that she is, or at least could be. Why does the son accuse her of having an affair? Where did he get that idea, and does it have anything to do with who he meets in the final shot? There is much much more going on in this film then the negative reviewers have bothered to see. This is the sort of movie that whole books will be written about, the kind of film studied shot by shot in university classes. The film is simultaneously about national/international politics, racism, marriage, and the socio-psychology of trust, guilt, and denial at many levels.
It's true that there are no easy "solutions" to the mystery, and that's part of the point of the film. And of course that is also often the case for Hitchcock (e.g. The Birds). If you are looking for a more conventional mystery with neatly explained "answers" then this is not for you, but if you are looking for an inellectual adventure that will move you subtly, deeply this is a good choice.
And oh yes, you will gasp at one scene. I'm not easily taken by surprise and see the "plot twists" such as they are in most Hollywood movies long before they happen, but this film managed to puzzle me and shock me.
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