Cache

Cache (2005): Just when I thought it was safe to try another French movie; along came this Cannes winner and I gave it a try. This is another movie the mainstream critics went all gushy over and I’m sorry to say it is what I call a typical French film, that is, no beginning, no end, but a painfully long middle. It seems someone is taping a couple’s house and mailing them the tapes along with child like drawn pictures of a bloody boy that apparently has some relation to the husband. The police fail to take great interest in the case since no one has been injured. The movie is filled with mundane dialogue, lengthy viewing of the tapes which are very boring, and a lot of wandering around. Their son goes missing and the father thinks he’s been kidnapped and attacks the grown son of an Algerian couple that used to work for his parents. His own son has only stayed overnight with some friends but the father is now convinced the tapes are the work of this mystery French/Algerian man who he apparently had done some harm to when they both were children. His son is also convinced his mother is having an affair. Now it started to look a little interesting at this point but the mystery man invites the husband to his apartment and then kills himself by cutting his throat with a straight razor. Why? Don’t ask me. The wife’s affair thing goes dormant and then the dead man’s son confronts the husband with illogical questions and then goes away and the movie ends. What?? You never find out why the man killed himself, or why the boy suddenly thinks his mother is having an affair or what exactly was going on with several other characters in the flick.

The movie is supposed to be about the effects of guilt and the burden it can be but you could have fooled me. In addition, it moves at a coma inducing pace, especially while watching the couple watching the tapes on which there isn’t much to watch. The director commented that he has nothing but contempt for people wanting an ending to their movies and he sure showed it in this flick. Pass on this one unless you like all French movies. The movie was rated R for: the best throat slitting scene ever seen, mind numbing dialogue, lack of tape editing, excessive coffee drinking, massive wandering around, and especially for the rooster with its head cut off flopping all over the courtyard.