Por Ella

Julien and Lisa are a happy loving couple living quiet, ordinary lives in their quiet, ordinary apartment with their baby son Oscar. Then one evening the doorbell rings, Julien opens the door and their lives are thrown into chaos. Police swarm into the apartment, pounce on Lisa and arrest her for the murder of her boss. Three years later Lisa has lost her last appeal against her 20 year jail term and is finally giving up hope – and giving up on life. She stops taking insulin trying to slowly commit suicide. Julien is a desperate man. He tracks down a notorious criminal who has written a best-selling book on his several successful escapes from prison. And so his plan begins. 'Anything For her' is a typical solid French thriller. There are no sudden twists or turns in a plot that relies on the natural tension of the situation to keep it going. The meticulous planning of the jail-break is compelling as you watch Julien turn his apartment into effectively an operations room. The walls are lined with maps and photographs, with graphs and plane schedules, and with heavily underlined questions such as "Escape Route?" He tells Lisa nothing about what he's doing and begs her to just hang on. He intends to sell her mother's house to raise the money they'll need to start a new life but then Lisa is told she is to be transferred to another prison and so Julien must speed up his plans and raise the money somewhere else. The tension and the pressure of it on Julien is almost unbearable and never lets up. The director is determined that there be no distraction from this, his main focus of the film and quickly shows, practically at the start, what actually happened to Lisa's boss so that that whole aspect of the story is quickly dismissed and forgotten about. It's not an all-out masterpiece by any means but it is a very entertaining, at times gripping film that does exactly what it says on the tin. Vincent Lindon is practically a veteran of these things and forces you to feel real empathy for Julien while Diane Kruger does well with what is really a much smaller part, fully conveying the nightmare of prison life and the physical decline it brings.

A stylish , complex movie driven by character , dealing with a high school teacher with no legal means left to him , as he devises a daring plan to rescue his wrongfully imprisoned wife from jail . Based on the original idea by Guillaume Lemans , this is a perfect thriller being starred by an all-star-cast as the French Vincent Lindon and German Diane Kruger . Being remade in American version (2010) by Paul Haggis with Russell Crowe and Elizabeth Banks . A teacher named Julien (Vincent Lindon , in American version played by Russell Crowe), is happily married to his sweetheart wife , Lisa (Diane Kruger , she spent several months developing the character which had a significantly smaller role in the original draft). When her despised chief is murdered, she is the main suspect . Then , a clear evidence convicts Lara Brennan of killing . Lisa is sentenced to 20 years of jail for murder charges. While she's in prison , her husband cares for their young son and plots a twisted plan , as he decides to break her out. Julien consults a successful escape artist turned author, and he starts planning and decides to carry out his scheme . He'll need to disrupt jail routine, obtain IDs and passports, know how to escape a dragnet, find a new place to live , and squirrel away cash ; as he spends the next few years trying to get her released . The essential question that lies in the film is the following : How far would you go for the one you love ?

This exciting film contains action , violence , thrills , suspense and plot twists . Excellent thriller in which nothing is the way it seems , the atmosphere is already tense and the twists and turns are the best part of this movie . In other ways, it feels like a tribute to Alfred Hitchcock, full of attractive characters and edge-of-your-seat intrigue . The film was noteworthy for casting some of the finest actors in France including Vincent Lindon as a husband whose life is turned upside down when his wife is accused of a murder , along with Olivier Marchal , an actor/director who has directed sensational Fench thrillers , just like "36th Precinct" , ¨Mr73¨ as good as this ¨Anything for her¨ . And , of course , a gorgeous as well as good actress Diane Kruger as the woman wrongfully condemned ; in fact ,Fred Cavayé chose Diane Kruger for her radiant beauty, as it would make her character's ordeal all the more powerful .All the prison scenes and the studio interiors were shot in chronological order as Fred Cavayé felt it would be important for the actors and the evolution of their characters. Good production design , the prison seen in the film is actually a combination of three filming locations: the exteriors are that of the Meaux prison, some 40 kilometers east of Paris, the entrance corridors are part of the Bibliothèque Nationale De France in Paris and the other interiors . The picture achieved big success and was Nominated César Best First Film (2009) and considered to be the best thriller of the year in which you'll leave the cinema shaken and moved . Excellent soundtrack by Klaus Badlet , it was recorded at London's Abbey Road Studios that elevate the emotion and the intensity of the scenes to new heights .

Fred Cavallé did a formidable job with Pour elle" ,France (original title or "Anything for Her" , International title and filming lasted eleven weeks. Fred was immediately impressed with writer Guillaume Lemans's passion for the story, and his vision, stating that he understood that the novel was a love story first , and a thriller second . The idea for the film came from Guillaume Lemans , once Fred Cavayé got involved, the two men started out by working on the film separately before sharing their ideas , Cavayé then wrote the first draft of the screenplay himself, and so on. Cavallé is a notorious writer/director and he formerly was a fashion and advertising photographer . He has only directed three films "The Players" with Oscar winner Jean Dujardin and another phenomenal thriller titled ¨Point blank ¨ with Gilles Lellouche , Gérard Lanvin and Elena Anaya . Eclectic and moving, Cavallé is a successful filmmaker .

I was pleasantly surprised by this movie.

Of course the whole idea of the plot is not very believable, an ordinary man trying to get his ordinary wife to escape from prison. That is the downpoint of the film.

However, through the great performances by both actors Vincent Lindon and Diane Kruger, and the wonderful chemistry between them, you actually care for them, and understand the psychological motivation of the husband. Add to that the perfectly paced development of the story, and you end up with a solid, entertaining thriller with real emotions.

In my opinion, you forget the unrealistic aspect of a film when the performance(s) of the actor(s) are deep and the emotions strong. So for me, even though this film provides nothing new, it is a brilliantly executed thriller.

Anything for Her is a French film caught between the two things we've come to expect from French film-makers and their cinematic form from recent years. The film is one part harrowing tale of supposed injustice, complete with character study in the form of a desperate male on a mission which blurs the lines between right and wrong; while it's additionally one part relentless thriller, a film that thrives on its seemingly endless passage of scenes that put the lead through a harrowing grinder of dedication to a cause, but will not be ashamed to include the odd action set piece or fight scene. The film calls to mind recent French films Irréversible and The Beat That my Heart Skipped in its attention to the study of the male putting themselves through Hell for sake of family members-come-loved ones; but Anything for Her carries a fast, loose aesthetic which additionally calls to mind something like Distrcit 13, or any other recently produced Luc Besson feature, thus placing it tantalisingly on the line between these two 'types'.

In fact the film provides that somewhat amusing; B-movie inspired; typically self-aware sensibility going into it. The cover for the film is a gruff looking and gun-wielding individual named Julien (Lindon) standing along side his wife Lisa (Kruger), complete with the tag-line (cue cheesy American voice-over trailer voice) "How far would you go for the one you loved?" slapped to the side of it all. The film does not hang around with an extended point of attack, and it isn't long before the premise of trying to get one's wife out of prison by whichever way possible is kick-started into action. Overall, I think the film wants us to enjoy Julien's striving to rescue his beloved wife from the system which has imprisoned her after society put her in; enjoy it more-so than feel absolutely terrible and really humbled alá the aforementioned examples as this man is put through some pretty harsh paces. If this sensation does wash over us at whatever point during the film, it might be because the couple have a young son whom the film, through the editing, often breaks off to encompass – just to make sure we're definitely on this guy's side.

Criticisms aside, I bought into it by the end. There can be no doubt that most will get their kicks out of the film by way of the rock 'em-sock'em approach it has, but the film was more of a character piece than I expected it to be, with Julien being transformed from a seemingly upstanding family man whom teaches at his local school. Indeed, the recognition Julien is deservedly given towards the end in regards to his shift is duly delivered when, in an ironic manner, certain individuals stare at some of his plans from earlier and exclaim that he was 'just an average guy' before being forced to come to terms with what has transpired.

The film sees police barge into the family's home and arrest wife Lisa, rather horrifically whilst she's discovering blood on her clothes in the bathroom. The police's grounds for arrest is based on a murder Lisa supposedly committed, that she argued with her boss; waited for them to travel to a car park; bludgeoned them to death with a fire extinguisher (what is is with the French and fire extinguishers as murder weapons in films?) before casually driving off home. Later on, we get a 'true' depiction of what happened when Lisa flashes back to the events in which it turns out someone else did what was pinned on her. Regardless, we're told she's innocent rather than going through the motions of finding out that she actually is – the film is not of the detective variety, but of the jailbreak variety.

Julien begins his transformation when it appears Lisa's mental condition is worsening in prison, and thus begins to reject her insulin dosages in an attempt to take one's life. With a child a few years older than what he was when Lisa was taken and desperation settling in when it emerges he may loose Lisa a second time, Julien springs into action. As a boxer boxing above his weight; as an individual completely out of his depth and as a fish nowhere near any water, he is an initial failure at his attempts to do what's right. By seeing him ambushed and beaten by two people he attempts to obtain fake passports from, the crashing reality that the road is long, and hard, hits home. But he climbs his way back up, by way of ambushing drug dealers and shoving his way into people's houses at gunpoint; this before we feel a transition of sorts is in progress. This is a transition the film, remember, wants you to recall is driven by pure love for another human being as well as the supposed false imprisonment of said human being; so it's all perfectly fine and all right to root for this guy and his actions, correct? That is if you buy into what the film offers in this sense.

So the film is an amusing trawl through France's underworld, as con artists; escape artists; counterfeiters and gangsters all make separate appearances. To the film's credit, director Fred Cavayé knows how to shift from horror and terror; to thrills and spills; to sheer suspense in equal measure. His film delivers on a visceral level of such a premise being executed in the manner it is with a series of scenes that exist to evoke such extreme reactions of pity, sorrow and willing. All this while its lead, practically the only real 'character' in the entire film, goes through a transition which offers a backbone to all the mayhem. It's not one of the best French efforts from recent times, but as far as this current spate of usually Luc Besson infused; kinetic; pleasure-aim; 'bang-for-your-buck' films go, Anything for Her is surprisingly above average.

TOUT POUR ELLE (Anything for Her) was the original story and film from which THE NEXT THREE DAYS was adapted. In many ways this film is at least as strong as the Paul Haggis version with Russell Crowe. Here the credits are due to the imagination of writers Fred Cavayé and Guillaume Lemans and directed by Fred Cavayé. It is a very fine character driven thriller that while it may appear incredible to most, it is nonetheless an involving story of a man's love and commitment to his wife.

Julien (an impressive Vincent Lindon) is a schoolteacher who has a happy home life with his beautiful wife Lisa (Diane Kruger) and son Oscar (Lancelot Roch). During a quiet evening at home they are disturbed by policemen who arrest Lisa for a murder she claims she did not commit. Jump three years and Julien has been working with lawyers, spending their paltry savings, on getting appeals to get Lisa released from jail. He gets moral support from his parents (Liliane Rovère and Olivier Perrier) but sees his family falling apart. After three years have passed and when all legal portals fail, Lisa attempts suicide and Julien decides the only way to get Lisa out of prison is to aid in her escape. He visits writer Henri Pasquet (Olivier Marchal) who has escaped from prison several times and outlines the dangers AND the only secure methods for affecting a prison escape. John slowly and methodically prepares for the escape, gaining money by contacting drug lord Mouss (Alaa Safi), commits some crimes of his own as he masterminds his plan to successfully extract Lisa from prison. There are many twists and turns to the story, well written subplots and unexpected coincidences, all populated with a very strong cast of capable actors. It is a tense little French film that may not have the better known cast of its later American successor, but it works on a very different level and is a solid psychological thriller.

Grady Harp