The Mark of an Angel

Director: Safy Nebbou
2007/ France/ 95mins

Sandrine Bonnaire (Monsieur Hire) stars as Claire, a mother of questionable sanity in the midst of a custody battle. One day while dropping her son off at a friend’s birthday party, she gazes upon a beautiful seven year old girl. This gaze never yields as Claire becomes obsessed with both the girl and her true identity for reasons only known to Claire.

Behind this psychological drama lies much more than the usual thriller fare. Feelings of abandonment, loss and redemption are felt throughout. Claire starts her personal mission as an underdog of epic proportions. Her own husband and parents are all too familiar with her tortured past to believe anything she says at first. The drama unfolds in leaps and bounds never slowing, never really relenting. The pace is set perfectly for what could have been a very explosive and sudden ending.

The protagonist here, Claire, is not easy to like. I found her facial expressions, or lack thereof, very frustrating. I found myself hating almost every aspect of her. I even zoned in on the fact that she wears every outfit twice in the film. This is something I usually do not dwell on and can only attribute it to the relative inertia of such a limited amount of settings or possibly too much camera time spent looking at Claire’s creased face in that rather deadpan way Nebbou loves. My eyes grew bored and wandered. I felt I was threading a very fine high wire. Depending on which side I fell on, I would or would not care about her accordingly. I think by the end, I was still on the wire, stranded and still totally unsure.

The other mother in the picture, Elsa, played by Catherine Frot, is yet another strong female force. But I treated her with equal dismissiveness. She fights out the interplay in a proud and tough fashion right through to the climax but in the end; should I like her at all? Or feel sorry for her? I think, overall, perhaps I felt a tinge of sorrow for everyone. There is a certain level of commiseration to be dished out here as the wrongs are righted in almost entirely non-conventional ways.

The sinister edge creeping in and out of the first hour warms gently and brilliantly at times. There is a wide open feel to the movement of the plot that it could go absolutely anywhere. And despite my earlier objections to the character of Claire; if weird and almost mute is what the director wants, he got it, and Bonnaire plays out the role superbly.

It's a pity this film has come out right now. In the shadow of the superior I’ve Loved You A Long Time, the explanations here are probably quite easy to see from early on in the film. One is only left to fathom; in what manner is Nebbou going to conclude the film? He can follow it through bit by bit to a logical conclusion to satisfy the viewer or surprise us with any number of twists and frightful turns. How you feel towards the ending really depends on your personal preference. I was satisfied, but angry at myself for being so inclined. I usually expect more perhaps. I wanted that little extra, that bit of surprise on top of surprise, like Charles Dumont’s Twentynine Palms or Catherine Breillat’s Brief Crossing.

Overall, what could have been a French The Hand That Rocks The Cradle, ends up being just an average story. This film could have been many, many things but opted for safety. In a world of Michael Haneke and Alexandre Aja, maybe this is enough to differentiate from the herd for now but it remains questionable whether or not this film will be remembered in a few years time or not. A good effort but not a great one.

-Shane O'Reilly