Comedy of Power
Director: Claude Chabrol
Year Released: 2006
Rating: 2.0
Legal shark (Isabelle Huppert) investigates white-collar crime in France (inspired by the real-life Elf Aquitaine affair) but has to go through endless red tape, endure sleepless nights and contend with threats against her life. Huppert's so used to playing stone-cold roles like this it's as if she's on auto-pilot (her husband's attempted suicide, her trouble sleeping, her looted office ... pfft, no biggie) - same goes for Chabrol who, over his career, can often be accused of going for efficiency over all else. Details of the case are purposely kept out and the ending leaves things in limbo - I like to think those rich criminals (the ones smoking cigars and drinking brandy, in case you couldn't tell) will rot in jail or kill themselves (or have mysterious heart attacks - hello, Kenneth Lay), but we can never be too sure....
