Anna M.

'Anna M.' is a stylish, chilling portrait of a woman's collapse into mental illness; yet it's only partially successful as a film, in spite of a great performance from Isabelle Carre in the lead role, excellent cinematography and an understated, effective score. This is partially because at times it threatens to descend into a straightforward psychopathic stalker movie, and however nicely this is worked out, it's a plot line made dull through over-use and the fact that the victim, by definition, cannot be held responsible by the viewer for their actions. In my opinion, most interesting films leave the audience to judge the character, which can't be done with this plot line. Cleverly, the film cleverly brings this sub-plot to a premature climax, which turns out to be just a local peak on the overall narrative arc; but that wider story, although more innately interesting, never quite lets us into its secret. The tale begins, after all, with a kind of suicide attempt; what led up to this is never explained, even though it's clearly the root cause of what happens after, as well. For me, 'Anna M.' falls in between a thriller and a character study, with some of the merits of both, but also not without the faults of each genre; a miss rather than a hit, though not without interest.