In Their Sleep

Why is it that the Europeans manage to take what is essentially a nuts and bolts thriller and make it interesting by the clever use of narrative tools and well placed arty camera shots? I'm not saying that we are a talentless bunch on our little Isle, but there does seem to be a school of thought that all we need is the application of Danny Dyer to make a low key film release work.

In Their Eyes starts with a bit of a bang, the monotony of a summer's afternoon in a family household is broken by the mysterious death of the teenage son. Rarely do I get to see a film these day's without any preconceptions, but this really caught me off guard. This film was not going to hold back.

We are then transported forward in time and join the mother of that family, Sarah (Anne Parillaud) on a drive home from work late one night, she runs over a young man, Arthur (Arthur Dupont) who survives and as she tries to take care of him, she discovers that he is being chased by a nutcase. They hole themselves up in her house and the nutter tracks them down. So far, so predictable.

But all is not as it seems.

Then Eric Du Potet chucks a curveball. Through the use of flashbacks, and at times dreams, he shifts the central focus of the film between the characters causing you to change your allegiances. It's a little like a whodunnit where you are constantly having to reassess who you think is the baddie. It's also a violent film, it doesn't pull any punches and the certificate of 15 surprised me a little. These action pieces are a mixed bag. There is a fight scene that lacks any cohesion and looks as though it's been cobbled together cheaply, but the stealthier understated scenes are tackled with a lot more flair and as a result are more enjoyable to watch.

The acting is good enough. Parillaud is given more than just the usual 'screaming, look scared' female role, and she does very well with it, whilst Dupont gets the character with the most depth and he possibly has a bit too much fun with it, hamming it up overly on some occasions.

At 79 minutes it's a film that obviously rattles along, not giving you a chance to get bored, but it's worth a watch just to see it unfold. It'll keep you guessing, I guarantee it will also shock you at least twice and it has a finale that is unsettling subtly done. It's all you can really ask for from a low budget thriller.


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