Parky At the Pictures (4/7/2025)

(Reviews of An Ordinary Case; and Jungle Trouble)

AN ORDINARY CASE.

There's something of an overlap between Daniel Auteuil and the character plays in his fifth outing as an actor-director. As the recent reissue of Michael Haneke's Caché/Hidden (2005), Auteuil is one of the finest screen actors of his generation. He made a promising start behind the camera with the Marcel Pagnol trio of The Well-Digger's Daughter (2011), Marius, and Fanny (both 2013). But he came seriously unstuck with The Other Woman (2018), an adaptation of a Florian Zeller play that the Hollywood Reporter trashed as `an embarrassing and rather abject attempt by the otherwise talented Daniel Auteuil to direct a sexy rom-com for the 50-and-over set'.

The 75 year-old had something to prove with his next directorial venture, therefore, and it's interesting that the character Auteuil plays in An Ordinary Case is a lawyer who returns to the bar for the first time since tarnishing his reputation. Based on a true-life crime, this measured courtroom drama draws on the writings of criminal lawyer Jean-Yves Moyart, who blogged under the name Maître Mô.

As wife lawyer Annie Debret (Sidse Babett Knudsen) is too tired to respond to a late-night call in February 2017 to stand as public defender for a murder suspect in custody, husband Jean Monier (Daniel Auteuil) agrees to go in her place. He is intrigued by father-of-five Nicolas Milik (Grégory Gadebois), who seems genuinely nonplussed that he has been arrested for killing his wife, Cécile, when he had no reason to do so. Encouraged to talk, Milik explains how he had put up with his wife's drinking for several years, as he still loved her and wanted his beloved children to have their mother. The previous night, she had come home fighting drunk and had scratched his neck in attempting to lash out. But she had stomped off to the bench in the village of Mas-Thibert, where she could often be found sleeping it off.

Milik continues that he had been shaken by the row and had gone for a glass of milk to the bar run by his ex-soldier friend, Roger Marton (Gaëtan Roussel). He had told Milik to be a man and stand up to Cécile, but wife Laure (Florence Janas) had warned him not to interfere. Convinced by Milik's innocence, Monier surprises his wife and partner by announcing that he intends to represent Milik, even though he has not been in court for 15 years, since the man he had successfully defended on a charge of killing old people promptly re-offended.

Three years pass and the trial date arrives. President Violette Mangin (Isabelle Candelier) invites Avocate Générale Adèle Houri (Alice Belaïdi) to make her opening remarks and Monier responds by challenging her line of reasoning by pointing out that killing Cécile would not have benefited Milik in any way, as the family home belonged to his wife and she had willed it to her sister, Audrey Girard (Aurore Auteuil). His best course of action, had he wanted to end the marriage, would have been to divorce Cécile and sue for custody of their children, which he would get because of her alcoholism. Furthermore, the state would have had to provide housing and financial assistance to raise the young family.

During the investigative period, Monier had visited Audrey to collect some of Milik's belongings. She had not hidden her bitterness at the way in which he had ruined her sister's life, even though she had admitted that he was good with the kids. She is on the front row in the courtroom when Laure comes to testify. Marton has also been charged with Cécile's murder and she tearfully recalls how he had come to bed at 3am on the night of the murder and had whispered to her that he had `done it'.

When a forensics expert gives evidence, Monier establishes that the survival knife used to slit Cécile's throat had belonged to Marton and that the act of restraining and slicing would have been easier for a left-hander, which is what the bar owner is. Nevertheless, when he comes to court for the second day, Audrey taunts him with the Portal case from 15 years earlier and demands to know if he intends to help another psychopath go free. However, she is ejected from the courtroom soon afterwards for shouting out during proceedings.

Anne is concerned that the pressure of the trial is getting to Monier, who is experiencing dizzy spells. But he insists that Malik needs him and is frustrated that he won't allow his eldest daughter to speak on his behalf because he wants to spare her the sight of her father in the dock. Monier's mood is not improved by Milik getting rattled when questioned by the Avocate Générale about the tiny thread from his blue jacket that was found under Cécile's fingernails when her body was recovered from an abandoned house near the Van Gogh Bridge. Moreover, when Monier attempts to intervene by claiming that it's difficult for someone to remember what they were wearing three years previously, Milik recalls precisely the suit he was wearing when Monier plucks out a date at random.

Feeling the strain, Monier risks being disbarred when Marton kills himself in his cell and he asks the lawyer who had been defending him if he would be willing to share testimony that might help his client. Only his friendship with Anne prevents the lawyer from reporting Monier and she is hurt when he bawls her out for not being more supportive when the case is in the balance. However, he has regained his composure by the third and final day of the hearing.

Indeed, Monier makes short work of a middle-aged antique dealer (Charlie Nelson) who had come forward after a newspaper appeal for witnesses to events at the bridge. He describes how he had pulled up about 30m from a vehicle at the roadside and had noticed two figures standing over a third on the ground. Presuming them to be drunk, he had driven off. But the news of the killing had prompted him to come forward and he is clearly enjoying the attention. However, Monier forces him to admit that he had been drinking at the end of an 18-hour day at an antiques fair and had delayed almost a week before coming forward with his eyewitness account. As a result, Monier is feeling confident when the judge calls for closing statements after Maître Judith Goma (Suliane Brahim) delivers the social services assessment that Milik should be returned to the children who need him.

Both the Avocate Générale and Monier address the jury with clarity and precision, with the latter pointing out that there is no evidence to link Milik with the crime and that the prosecution has failed to make a compelling case why a man who could only lose by committing murder would do something so reckless. He stands outside with Milik while the jury deliberates and darkness has fallen by the time they are summoned back to the courtroom. Much to Audrey's delight, a verdict of premeditated murder is returned and Milik is sentenced to 20 years.

Shaken by the fact that his faith in Milik has been countermanded, Monier rushes after him to urge him to appeal. But Milik admits that he had been guilty all along and had only gone along with the plea because no one had ever treated him with such respect. Appalled that his judgement had been so misplaced, Monier vomits in the car park after a female juror had informed him that they had been ready to acquit Milik before the judge had come to their room to advise them about their responsibility.

In voiceover, Monier reveals that three years have passed since the trial. He has recovered his health and has taken other cases. But he admits to being surprised when Monier asks him to defend him in a second investigation. At the prison, Monier listens in dismay as Milik confesses to insist with two of his daughters because he had felt so lonely. Cécile had caught him and had threatened to expose him unless he dropped his plan to divorce her and stopped complaining about her drinking. For a while, the deal had held. But, when she started dropping veiled hints, Milik had borrowed Marton's combat knife and had murdered his wife. He apologises to Monier for withholding the truth. But the stunned lawyer is no longer listening.

The comparisons with Justine Triet's Anatomy of a Fall (2023) are misleadingly unfair. But the consensus rightly has it that the case is more interesting than the film because Daniel Auteuil's acting and direction are so reticent. Yet a great deal of care has been taken to show that Monier is every bit as much on trial as Milik, as he once again stakes his reputation on a hunch based on his personal rapport with the defendant. Auteuil is also aware that any lawyerly flamboyance on his part would make Monier less vulnerable while also risking overshadowing the undemonstrative display by Grégory Gadebois that makes Milik to empathetic and elusive, or,as the script has it, `neither a credible culprit nor an obvious innocent'.

The atmosphere within the court is always professional rather than performative and this puts Auteuil's picture on a par with Antoine Raimbaul's Conviction (2018), Alice Diop's Saint Omer (2022), and Cédric Kahn's The Goldman Case (2023), which also eschewed the grandstanding beloved of so many Hollywood courtroom sagas. This compels the viewer to focus on the words being spoken, while the camera angles and distances agreed with cinematographer Jean-François Hensgens reinforce the notion of confinement and apprehension. Even outside the court, Auteuil is often seen in his car or office with the struts of the Van Gogh Bridge casting bar-like shadows over the vehicle, while the shots of the bulls in the Arles region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur suggest the unpredictability and danger with which Monier is having to contend.

With the exception of a poorly delineated subplot about a bullfighter facing drug-smuggling charges, editor Valérie Deseine makes a tidy job of collating the non-linear episodes with the procedural sequences, although the screenplay written by Auteuil and Steven Mitz often feels careless in its dating of events, while also being a little lapse in its approach to forensic science. The closing summations are also weak, while the grand revelation of the post-trial coda is clumsily cobbled, despite being poignantly played by Gadebois, who, in spite of everything, never quite extinguishes the initial image of the hard-pressed dad wielding a pan of spaghetti while trying to corral a quintet of lively, loving kids. For all its flaws, however, this holds the attention and demands a reaction.

JUNGLE TROUBLE.

It would appear as though Jungle Trouble is the first Iranian animation made for children to secure a general release in the UK. If this brash, boorish outing from Behnoud Nekooei, reflects the general standard, however, it's likely to be some while before a second feature emulates it.

Pre-teen Mohsen (Katherine Clavelo) is obsessed with superheroes and has created for himself the persona of Nimble Kid. So, when out with his parents and younger sister, Mohsen can't stop himself from rescuing a tiger that is being chased through the jungle by some hunters on motorbikes. Unfortunately, Tigy (Romulo Beral) gets trapped in the boot of the car and, when he joins his engineer father Hamid at the construction site here he's working, Mohsen finds himself at the controls of a tower crane and proceeds to demolish the building Hamid has spent months erecting.

Somehow escaping a telling off (because boys will be boys), Mohsen smuggles the tiger into his bedroom. He promises to return him to the forest, although his sister wants to keep him and pet him as her own pink panther. When attempts to catapult and hand-glide Tigy fail, Mohsen decides to cram him into his suitcase on a class trip that is heading to the vague vicinity of the jungle.

Mohsen pulls the communication cord on the train so that Tigy can leap out. But the other kids recognise him as an endangered Malaysian Tiger and panic when they hear gunshots. Jumping off the train in his Nimble Kid outfit, Mohsen goes into the jungle and promptly attracts the attention of the hunters while Tigy is trying to hide in a hollow tree trunk. The big cat takes a bullet to protect the boy and Mohsen wakes next morning to see Tigy regenerate in front of the other animals, who are concerned that he is using up too many of his nine lives.

Undaunted, Tigy goes to the mine where Extinguisher Alex (Alexandre Texeira) and his cohorts camp out and liberates the creatures trapped in cages. However, he's indebted to Mohsen casting a giant shadow on the wall to scare off the three sidekicks, who require a musical pep talk from Alex, as he boasts about being the greatest hunter of them all.

Determined to help save the forest, Mohsen agrees to follow Tigy on a nocturnal trek. However, it's a trick to lock him in a ranger's hut so that he can be returned to his anxious parents as soon as possible. Naturally, Mohsen escapes and convinces some liberated animals that Nimble Kid is special force who can help them defend themselves against the hunters. But they try to eat him when they discover he's only a human and Tigy has to intervene to knock him into the river so he can float to safety clinging to a branch. He gets caught in a net by Alex, who finds the habitats of all the animals from the pictures on Mohsen's phone. When he goes off to find the Heart of the Forest, however, Mohsen is rescued by the Forest Lion.

He takes the boy to the animal meeting place and declares that he is the new King of the Forest because he's the only one who can defeat the hunters. Tigy is unimpressed and skulks away, only to be trapped in a net. Mohsen then discovers that Alex is on the rampage and is decimating areas of ecological importance in his determination to find that the Heart of the Forest is a doe-eyed gazelle.

Howling with remorse for having been so arrogant and foolish, Mohsen longs for his parents as the forest burns around him. He's picked up by Ranger Graham (Wayne LeGette), who tells him how the Heart of the Forest came into existence. In return, Mohsen tips off the ranger that Alex plans to ship his trophies by train rather than truck, so he can bypass all the roadblocks. With Tigy reluctantly onboard after Mohsen cuts him free from his net, the friends hijack the rail truck containing all the animals and Tigy zooms on a stolen motorbike so that Mohsen can change the points so that the animals can be saved and he can reconnect with the school trip.

Alex realises the error of his ways and becomes the biggest protector of wildlife, while Mohsen is thanked by the Heart of the Forest before his train trundles on. When he calls out that he'll be back to visit at weekends, Tigy jokes that they will never get rid of him now what he has learned that heart matters more than superheroics.

Where on earth do you start with a film as bad as this? The story that makes no sense? Or the characters whose design (by Tabasi Hadi), personality, and voice-work are gratingly resistible? What about the atrocious songs written by Mohammad Tavazoli Sabzevar and Mahdi Mohammadalizadeh, whose lyrics feel like they have been auto-translated and then plonked down in front of a singer who fails to invest them with an iota of zest or sincerity?

As screenwriter, Mohmmadali Ramezanpoor has to take the bulk of the blame, if only for creating Mohsen, a whiningly uncharismatic brat who neither gets punished for his thoughtless behaviour nor learns from his mistakes. But the narrative veers all over the place without ever pausing to establish characters or situations. This is down to the director, whose primary concerns seem to be to hurtle through the set-pieces in the noisiest and least imaginative of manners, while toning down specific Iranian references in order to ensure that the film can be exported. In that regard, the distributors must also take some flak for taking on a film with so little to recommend it.

It's common for critics to pan this kind of derivative CGI fare, with many resorting to unfavourable comparisons with the Hollywood originals being knocked off. This

column has always striven to find the positives, where possible. But, on this occasion, there's nothing for it but to join the herd. Nobody sets out to make a bad film, but that's very much what this is.