Anatomy of a Fall, 2023 - ★★★½
I made a mistake. I went in thinking "murder mystery," but the real death in this movie is the fairy tale of a perfect marriage. And it's brutal.
The acting in the film is so authentic and so close to home, this movie feels more like a documentary to me than fiction. Many families go through the same thing, perhaps not to the extreme that is required from a movie to attract an audience, but the drama and intensity are all there. As a matter of fact, I could argue that in a way it's worse since it lasts and continues into your teenage years and adulthood. These things shape you and your opinions of relationships forever.
As someone who grew up with parents fighting constantly to the point of a divorce, this was an odd healing experience. "Someone had the same life I had, but it ended up even worse," I told myself. And I don't even need to feel guilty since this is fiction; yet, it is so real I know the writers of this movie must have gone through the same things I did.
There is a point in this movie where one of the characters explains how deep desperation looks like, the kind that leads to a bottomless depression. I nodded in my seat and thought, I wish I could explain it this well. Thankfully, someone made this movie.
Be warned, if you have a past or familiarity with intense fighting and/or divorce (I want to say, who doesn't these days?), this movie will rip you apart. For me, this proved to be a healing experience, a confirmation of the choices my family made, and later I did, as an adult. The friend who watched it with me was not OK after this movie ended and needed to recover.