Author's rating:
Two middle-class, wealthy and happy families suddenly find themselves in a whirlwind of misfortune and violence. This is the plot of Double suspicion, directed by the Belgian Olivier Masset-Depasse, an almost unknown name in Italian cinemas as well as the cinema of his country of which we don't have much memory of particularly successful titles and authors. In this case, we have to change our mind: it is a very high quality film as rarely happens to see. Everything works perfectly from the script to the acting.
The story is believable to such an extent that the question arises whether it is taken from true events for how long appears in its "normal" drama. In fact, unpredictable situations can occur that can trigger frightening conflicts between individuals, even when they are apparently very close to each other. In these circumstances, something can emerge from the depths of one's personality that no one could ever have imagined could exist. This, perhaps, the real plot of the film.
We meet in an anonymous town in Northern Europe, in a period that can be traced back to the 70s, in a villa made up of two paired and adjoining twin houses where two very similar families live. Both families have a son and a misfortune will happen to one of them. From that moment a sequence of events is unleashed that will lead to the final tragedy which, of course, we will not reveal to you. It all starts with a suspicion, with the doubt that the events are not accidental but that at least there is an indirect responsibility.
It is a complex and refined psychological thriller, violent and ruthless, where it is not at all easy to guess which side is the good and where the bad and who, among the protagonists, is the good and who is the bad. The story unfolds in a crescendo of anxiety and tension that leaves no pause. Everyone is in the right place (the highly capable actors, especially the two very good female protagonists: Veerle Baetens and Anne Coesens) and the narrative timings are entirely consistent. Even the images are treated to the limits of perfection and as they scrolled across the screen we wondered why, despite being a fictional story, place it in such a well-defined time, the '70s, and represent it with such precision.
The result is surprising and it is clear why this film deserved so much attention on the international stage (released in 2018 at the Toronto Film Festival). The ending leaves questions not so much about its plausibility, which is also sustainable, but rather about a sense of bitterness that is difficult to interpret.
In a cinematic moment of scarcity of quality titles (let's also add the absence of national production) this film deserves great attention. We wouldn't want to make excessive comparisons but it's hard not to think of a master of this genre: Alfred Hitchcock. We are talking about a kind of film that is not easy to make but which, fortunately for us, occasionally someone succeeds.
