Sette giorni nella vita di un uomo

What is maybe not immediately obvious in this movie is that the main character (who is a prosecutor rather than a lawyer) prosecutes people for the very exact crimes he is committing himself in his personal life, although in less acute and less obvious forms. Every day of the week is dedicated to a different crime. This subtle parallelism of situations and the perplexity of a hero confronted with moral choices are the essence of the movie. Similar themes also appear in Stuhr's previous screenplay, "Historie milosne", where he plays 4 different characters, who all need to decide what to do with problematic love.

Having seen this movie during the Brussels Film Festival in 2000, I remember being pleasantly entertained, but nothing more. We see the life of a lawyer (Stuhr) during one crucial week. Each day starts with him doing a couple of laps in a swimming pool and every day ends with him getting a little bit further in trouble. There are some comic moments, and some dramatic ones, but in the end it is difficult to say what the makers of this movie tried to accomplish. Sure, it is well acted, reasonably well-written (with the exception of the "seduction" scene, which is extremely unbelievable. The music is well used, but the pace is very uneven. In short, a movie that is worth seeing on video, especially if you like Stuhr. If you don't, then I would suggest re-renting Kieszlowski's Dekalog 1 to 9 again (not number 10 if you don't like Stuhr).