Hanging Offense (2004) Movie Review

Michele works for the police - force in the town of Fontainebleau, where a woman’s body has just been discovered in the woods. It is ruled to be a suicide but Michele is not so sure of this because one of her shoes is missing without a trace, her back is covered in nasty welts and she has the word “Pardon” carved into her arm. This leading lady is a well - respected cop, but as with virtually all cop movies, she’s also a troubled one. Still riddled with grief after the death of her young son four year previously, Michele tries to solve the mystery in the woods, which unfolds over the on the eight days leading up to the anniversary of the boy’s death…

She’s a bit like DCI Tennyson of “Prime Suspect”. A little older than her male colleagues, whom she charms silly, she has that hard exterior with underlying softness. The actress who plays her, Josiane Balasko, gives off a certain aura, and people will be able to relate to her.

The style, although a bit grainy, is quite interesting – the gloomy rain soaked forests pleasing contrast, but the camera has a habit of spinning around wildly at a strange angle, in a way that might, instead of inducing fear, make some people feel like vomiting.

The dream sequences appear to have been shot the same way as waking life, there’s no way to separate them from reality - this is probably to create a blurred line. There is one excellent montage of all Michele’s dreams whizzing past in sequence, and a nice silhouette effect of a gun against a wall, but other than that, it is shot quite conventionally.

As for the jump factor, well they’re mostly predictable; a wild dog lunges… “RAAARGH”, but of course, it’s on a leash that is just too short to make contact, a person in a black hooded robe chases Michele through the night

There’s also an animal that dies which you can see is quite clearly still moving post- demise, although this might be quite a selfish grievance as anything has got to be better than using a dead bunny – maybe a fake one would have sufficed. Speaking of things that are not necessary, there’s a scene in this movie in which you see quite graphically a man p***ing on a woman’s face – she’s tied up and unable to defend herself. This would be acceptable had it been required to the plot, but here it appears to be thrown in just for shock value, and just cheapens the whole experience.

Needless to say, despite the admirable performance of the lead the story, it just isn’t up to scratch.