About 11 days ago the 79th Cannes Film Festival opened with a lighthearted French comedy, The Electric Kiss. That indicated to me they were getting the fun stuff out of the way in order to go really dark for the next 10 days. That has been pretty much the case, so it’s not surprising that the very last competition film, premiering tonight, doesn’t exactly make you leave the Palais walking on air.
The Birthday Party seems like a fun title but you don’t want an invite to this one. Based on the book Histoires de la Nuit by Laurent Mauvignier, this is yet another home invasion thriller, a well-worn genre that I think has never gotten a whole lot better than 1955’s The Desperate Hours with Humphrey Bogart and Fredric March (not the ’90s remake), and in terms of real life none tops the beginning of Richard Brooks’ brilliant 1967 film In Cold Blood from Truman Capote’s book on the Cutter Family murders. That same year, Wait Until Dark scared me to death when bad guys terrorized a blind Audrey Hepburn. The original Straw Dogs was good, so was Panic Room.
It is tough to improve on these, and French director Lee Mysius (Ada, Fire Devil) doesn’t quite get there, though her intense drama has its moments.
One of those moments negatively speaking, is [SPOILER ALERT] in the first half hour before things get boiling. The nice friendly dog is the first casualty of this home invasion, and for that I must deduct some points because I really don’t like it when the good-hearted pup gets it between the ears. I have still never forgiven John Wick, the first one, for doing it so vividly to that nice little beagle.
Other than this transgression, Mysius, who does have a flair for setting the story in a remote location guaranteeing added tension ala another home invasion movie I loved, 1962’s Cape Fear, as well as the Martin Scorsese remake. Fortunately, though this gets violent, Mysius doesn’t go down the path of the most terrifying example of the genre, 1997’s torture porn entry Funny Games.
Living in a very unpopulated little area of the rural French marshlands, Thomas (Bastien Bouillon), his wife Nora (Hafsia Herzi) and their young daughter Ida (Tawba El Gharchi) go about their daily routine. Nora is an executive who gets a big promotion at work, Ida heads to school, and Thomas deals with the farm animals and setting about to surprise Nora with a birthday party. He brings the only neighbor they have, Cristina (Monica Bellucci), an Italian painter into the plans since she can really cook. Life here seems idyllic, until it isn’t. A man drives up wanting to be shown some real estate for sale but gives off a strange vibe to Cristina, who blows him off. The air of something bad about to happen continues through the film’s first half hour (including the demise of the dog), and as Thomas is decorating the house with birthday goodies, he and Ida have uninvited guests.
The real deal starts when Franck (Benoit Magimel) turns up, the clear boss of this break-in but who treats himself and his cohorts as welcome visitors. Thomas, who has had money troubles, assumes they might be after him. We don’t really know, nor do we know if perhaps it is really Cristina next door who is involved somehow. Slowly, Franck drops clues that it is something else altogether that has brought this unwanted visitation. Meanwhile, Nora is stuck on the road home with a flat tire she attempts to fix herself. When she finally gets home she is of course surprised by what she sees. It is all compounded by the arrival of two guests, co-workers of Nora’s — Estelle (Servane Ducorps) and Kim (Talia Tsuladze) — who think these guys are also just friends, but not for long as Franck keeps dropping clues, and suddenly we start to suspect it is Nora who may have had a past life no one knew about.
Production-wise this is a tight ship, basically set in two locations: the main house and Cristina’s next door, where one of the goons is keeping her captive so as not to let her go for help. Mysius keeps the suspense at a high pitch as the back story of Franck and his relationship to this family becomes clearer and more threatening. Magimel gets the acting honors here, bringing a distinct gangster vibe to a guy just out of prison, a sort of new-age Edward G. Robinson. His associates, played by Paul Hamy and Alane Delhaye, are more of the stock variety you see in these kinds of crime thrillers, neither with much of an IQ. As Nora, Herzi makes the right moves, and Bouillon as her increasingly concerned husband is a good guy in a bad situation. It’s always good to see Bellucci, and she’s got a nice role in this one.
The Birthday Party, unlike many of the other competition entries this year, doesn’t appear to have a whole lot on its mind other than just trying to entertain in a genre guaranteed to make you uncomfortable. Don’t watch this at home.
Producer is Jean-Louis Liu.
Title: The Birthday Party
Festival: Cannes (Competition)
Director-screenwriter: Lee Mysius
Cast: Benoit Magimel, Hafsis Herzi, Monica Bellucci, Tawba El Gharschi, Paul Hamy, Alan Delhaye, Sevane Ducorps, Talia Tsuladze
Sales agent: Mk2
Running time: 1 hr 54 mins
