Julien and Lisa Auclert, and their little son Oscar, are a middle class family living in a suburb of Paris. He is a teacher and she works in an office. One day Lisa has a scuffle with her superior at the office. That supervisor is found dead in the basement parking of the building. Her car was parked next to Lisa's. One night, Lisa, going home, found what appeared to be a fire extinguisher in front of her own car, she takes it on her hands to get it out of the way. As it happens, it was the murder weapon and she becomes the prime suspect. Eventually, she is found guilty and sent to prison.
Julien's world falls apart. To complicate things, Lisa is a diabetic who must take her insulin every day. He finds himself in a predicament he never thought possible. In spite of the fact that Lisa is innocent, there is circumstantial evidence that condemns her. All efforts to get her out fail. What can Julian do? Little it seems. Going to see a man that has written a book about his own ordeal with the law, Julian learns the basics of what to do, and what to avoid if he wants to get Lisa out.
First of all is the financial aspect of what he wants Lisa to escape the prison where she is serving her sentence. Then there is a problem of where to go, far away from France to a place that might offer the security of not being hunted by Interpol. Julien must get new identities for the three of them. He begins selling his possessions. Every penny counts to get what he wants. He makes a mistake in going to the wrong guy to ask for false papers. The man turns out to be a thief. He gets lucky from an unknown source and gets the new passports.
The problem is how to get Lisa out from the prison. Julien begins to study carefully the planned rescue of Lisa. Using his own apartment to prepare his plan, he begins exploring every possibility. Using one wall of the apartment, he keeps scheming. For the amount of money he must have to get out of the country, Julien figures he will hit on the man that duped him out of getting the first set of identification papers. It does not come without problems as he is wounded but not too bad, or life threatening. The main problem is how to get Lisa out of prison, but Julien has it all planned to the last detail.
"Pour elle" is an intense film with thriller overtones, directed with style by Fred Cavaye, making his full length film debut. The director shares writing credit with Gillaume Lemans. Like all thrillers, there are aspects of the story that just do not make sense, but viewers that appreciate the genre will probably not complain about those holes in the plot, that otherwise is played to its maximum effect. The prison escape, especially is something that might fall in that category, but one makes concessions because basically one is rooting for Julien all along as he embraces the cause of Lisa from the start, fighting against all odds to get her out.
The film belongs to Vincent Lindon, who gets better and better with each new project where he is asked to participate. His Julien is a man determined to take justice in his own hands to reunite his family at all costs. Diane Kruger, seen as Lisa, has little to do, spending most of the film inside the prison.
Julien's world falls apart. To complicate things, Lisa is a diabetic who must take her insulin every day. He finds himself in a predicament he never thought possible. In spite of the fact that Lisa is innocent, there is circumstantial evidence that condemns her. All efforts to get her out fail. What can Julian do? Little it seems. Going to see a man that has written a book about his own ordeal with the law, Julian learns the basics of what to do, and what to avoid if he wants to get Lisa out.
First of all is the financial aspect of what he wants Lisa to escape the prison where she is serving her sentence. Then there is a problem of where to go, far away from France to a place that might offer the security of not being hunted by Interpol. Julien must get new identities for the three of them. He begins selling his possessions. Every penny counts to get what he wants. He makes a mistake in going to the wrong guy to ask for false papers. The man turns out to be a thief. He gets lucky from an unknown source and gets the new passports.
The problem is how to get Lisa out from the prison. Julien begins to study carefully the planned rescue of Lisa. Using his own apartment to prepare his plan, he begins exploring every possibility. Using one wall of the apartment, he keeps scheming. For the amount of money he must have to get out of the country, Julien figures he will hit on the man that duped him out of getting the first set of identification papers. It does not come without problems as he is wounded but not too bad, or life threatening. The main problem is how to get Lisa out of prison, but Julien has it all planned to the last detail.
"Pour elle" is an intense film with thriller overtones, directed with style by Fred Cavaye, making his full length film debut. The director shares writing credit with Gillaume Lemans. Like all thrillers, there are aspects of the story that just do not make sense, but viewers that appreciate the genre will probably not complain about those holes in the plot, that otherwise is played to its maximum effect. The prison escape, especially is something that might fall in that category, but one makes concessions because basically one is rooting for Julien all along as he embraces the cause of Lisa from the start, fighting against all odds to get her out.
The film belongs to Vincent Lindon, who gets better and better with each new project where he is asked to participate. His Julien is a man determined to take justice in his own hands to reunite his family at all costs. Diane Kruger, seen as Lisa, has little to do, spending most of the film inside the prison.