Ein perfektes Leben

THE ADVERSARY (3+ outta 5 stars)

Chilling French suspense tale (based on a true story) of a seemingly well-to-do doctor, a husband and father, who turns out to be a complete fraud. He pretends to go to work in a prestigious medical building but all he does is loiter and kill time until he has to return home. He takes money from family and friends, pretending to invest it in foreign ventures... but he just uses their money to live on, buying his family more expensive homes and automobiles (plus a hot, young mistress for himself). But eventually people start demanding to see some returns on their investments... or want to withdraw large sums that the good "doctor" just doesn't have. So he keeps stalling and putting them off until he runs totally out of options and his whole world comes crashing down... resulting in his final, chilling actions. Terrific performance by Daniel Auteuil... who has the difficult job of trying to engender sympathy for a man who deserves none.