Only the Animals

Seventy years after Kurosawa did it in Rashomon, this terrific French thriller proves there's plenty of juice left in the idea of revisiting the same events through the eyes of different characters.

The film's emotional side is well-handled, helped by strong performances across the board. But it's the storytelling puzzle - the pile-up of different perspectives and gradual reveal of the facts - that makes it most worthwhile.

One or two of the story turns are far-fetched, but the delicious absurdism of the situations are worth any contrivances. Only the Animals unfolds beautifully.

An effectively convincing slow-burn thriller.

Not an entirely humming machine, but one that's been well-oiled enough to make for an engrossing ride through some intriguing thickets of love, desire and deceit.

The multiple viewpoints are just a clever, self-satisfied device to deliver stale goods and familiar ugliness with a soupçon of glib class politics.

The connections between the characters go from unexpected to weird, inclusively bordering on perverse. [Full review in Spanish]

No heroes or redemption in this macabre tale in which Moll confirms his status as an explicit and obstinate pessimist. [Full review in Spanish]

Grey and Grim like its characters... [Full review in Spanish]

The understated indeterminacy of the story makes us minimally interested, while the surprises, far from jaw-dropping, make it a passable, calibrated crime thriller.