An art-house spin on Fatal Attraction...
Anna M. (2007)
Reviews
Isabelle Carré is superb as Anna, but the problem is the tone. Caught between psychological study and thriller, it aims for both - but achieves neither.
Isabelle Carré brings a raw emotion to this French language film that elevates it from a so-so psychological drama to something deeply chilling.
The sheer ferocity of the central performance in this French psychological drama from writer-director Michel Spinosa is what saves it from being slightly one-dimensional.
With a strong performance from Isabelle Carré, Anna M. is an entertaining film, but it is also confused and slight, and like its anti-heroine, is in need of a firmer grip on reality.
Writer-director Michel Spinosa, harnessing a powerhouse central performance from Carré, has managed to hit the ground between giddy Hollywood thriller and brooding arthouse character piece.
For a film that presents itself as a case-study, Anna M has no trouble in chucking plausibility out of the window - would she really get a job as a nanny with that loony smile and no references? - and suffers from a mystifying and unsatisfactory ending.
Dodgy chapter titles and a ridiculous ending only confirm the impression that you're watching the art project of a second-year psychology student.
Unfortunately, as director Michel Spinosa has discovered, making a Fatal Attraction-esque thriller that’s also a serious study of mental illness is a lot harder than it sounds.
A decent Parisian thriller that rides on the tails of a calling-card turn from Isabelle Carré as a lovelorn stalker-cum-social-menace who falls in love with her doctor.

