In the Shadow of Iris (2016)

Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

This has all the makings of a great suspenseful movie, but the way it's presented is confusing & hard to follow. Not a complete waste of time but leaves me feeling disappointed.

A Paris banker's glamorous wife seems to have been abducted. What has that to do with the struggling garage mechanic? The plot is unveiled through a fairly confusing sequence of apparently disjointed scenes and flashbacks which eventually begin to make sense. The actors - Romain Duris as the mechanic, Charlotte Le Bon and Jalil Lespert as the banker play their parts well. Other reviewers have said there are holes in the plot, but I'm not so sure. It doesn't help that all French people apparently look the same: tall, dark-haired... All the men have beards. I hoped in vain for somebody who might be blond - or non-white. I've even watched the beginning of the film back through and I think everything does hang together - or near enough anyway. It is just the pace of events - some happening off-screen or presented out of order - that leads to confusion. And, of course it's a French film - in French. This also means we aren't afraid of a little nakedness here and there - or S&M for that matter - wherever they can be worked into the plot. Not so much though as to get in the way of the story. The result is a dark and atmospheric thriller which is worth watching whether you worry about it making complete sense or not.

I won't go into all the holes in "In the Shadow of Iris," a French film from 2016. They are well covered in a preceding review.Romain Duris stars as the beleaguered Max, who comes under suspicion when the wife of a businessman disappears, apparently kidnapped.I won't say anything else about the plot. Have you seen it before? Yes, but others in the same ilk were nowhere near as confusing. The flashbacks seem way out of sequence. It all comes together in the end, though.Charlotte LeBon is gorgeous with a figure to die for and we do see a lot of it. This movie is French, so there is sex, including S&M all over the place.Most of the drama comes from Duris, and he's excellent. The rest of the cast is good: Jalil Lespert, Camille Cotin, Adele Bencherif, and Helene Barbry.Strange and dark, it will remind you somewhat of Hitchcock. But he was easier to follow.

What a terrific little French thriller in the pure Hitchcock manner. A masterpiece of editing and acting as well with Romain Duris at his very best and also maybe as you have never seen him before. Brilliant, intelligent in the script and, I repeat, the editing that may give you a weird taste in the mouth at the end, but that's precisely what I love in this film. The audience may also be lost during the first part because of the so complex editing, but everything eventually makes it afterwards. Don't be worry, folks. I highly recommend it. But one thing worries me a little. Maybe I missed something. SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS. DO NOT READ IT IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN IT PLEASE. When the couple of Lespert and his mistress decide to frame Duris in order to get rid of the wife, did they know the wife would be killed, or was she already dead? When the mistress was tied up in the apartment by Duris, was the wife already dead, or was she killed after? because if the wife was killed BEFORE the mistress contacted Duris, that means the corpse would have remained a long time in the bedroom; an a corpse remaining so long could not be "misunderstood" by Duris when he discovered it and first thought the woman was just asleep. I guess a corpse smells a lot only after a couple of hours... After all maybe I missed something, but I repeat, the editing is so complex, that you may be lost in the chronology. Anyway, that's a must see. Far, far from Hollywood line, especially because of the exquisite ending.