THE SITTING DUCK Reviewed by GREG KING
Director: Jean-Paul Salome
Stars: Isabelle Huppert, Gregory Gadebois, Yvan Attal, Marina Fois, Christoph Paou, Bernard Gabay, Pierre Delandochamps, Francois-Xavier Demaison, Gilles Cohen, Mara Tarquin, Christian Hecq.
This tense political thriller from director Jean-Paul Salome (Arsene Lupin, etc) proves once again that fact is often stranger than fiction.
Maureen Kearney (played by veteran French actress Isabelle Huppert) is a whip smart and feisty union organiser and board member at Areva, France’s multinational energy company specialising in nuclear power technology. In 2012 there was a change in the leadership at the company, with Maureen’s longtime colleague and supporter Anne Lauvergeon (Marina Fois) ousted and replaced by Luc Oursel (Yvan Attal). Maureen didn’t trust Luc and their relationship was fraught with tension and disagreements. Then Maureen was handed a document by a member of a rival power company that revealed that the state-owned utility Electricite de France, Oursel and a Chinese power company were involved in secret deal that would transfer sensitive nuclear secrets and technology to the Chinese. Thousands of French jobs were at risk. But when Maureen tried to raise her suspicions of corporate shenanigans and secret deals with politicians and the media she was largely ignored and branded as a troublemaker. She even received anonymous threatening phone calls at all hours of the day and night.
Then in December 2012 she was attacked in her own home by masked intruders who tied her up, blindfolded her, assaulted her and even carved the letter A in her stomach. But when the police investigated they found little evidence to support her story, and with no witnesses or DNA found at the scene Kearney found herself considered suspect and accused of having falsified a police report in order to draw attention to herself and her campaign to expose the secret dealings. Her erratic behaviour, her troubled past and history of alcoholism, and inconsistencies in her story didn’t help matters either. Under intense pressure from the police Maureen eventually confessed that she made the whole thing up and was fined. Later she recanted her confession and appealed.
For the next six years Maureen fought the legal system to try and prove her allegations and find justice. All the time she was supported by her musician husband Gilles (Gregory Gadebois, recently seen in the odd couple comedy A Great Friend, etc), who stood by her through her difficulties.
Salome and co-writer Fadette Drouard (The Rose Maker, etc) have based The Sitting Duck on La Syndicaliste, a 2019 book written by Caroline Michel-Augirre, an investigative journalist. The film deals with potent themes of corporate greed, corporate politics, coverups, power and corruption, political intrigue, blatant misogyny, and Salome brings a patient and almost documentary like approach to the material, which plays out like a combination of police procedural and courtroom thriller. Julien Hirsch’s cinematography frames the drama without too many cinematic tricks, and he uses closeups to give us insights into Maureen’s mindset at crucial moments.
Its central tale of a whistleblower at the centre of the nuclear industry may remind audiences of the 1993 film Silkwood. The tale is a little ambiguous at times and even by the end of the film the audience is still left wondering where the truth lies, and apparently there are still people today who doubt the veracity of her story. Audiences are even forced to question how such an incident could have occurred, and the film doesn’t provide any easy answers. Salome ratchets up the tension for the most part, but towards the end of its two-hour running time the pace slackens a few times, and the material lacks that earlier sense of urgency. I even checked my watch a couple of times.
Huppert is superb and she captures Maureen’s resilience, her determination, her no-nonsense approach and also her sense of vulnerability and self-doubt. Her role as the victim of a brutal attack may remind audiences of her performance in Paul Verhoeven’s 2016 thriller Elle. Attal brings a suitably sleazy quality to his performance as the corrupt Oursel. Gadebois brings a sympathetic quality to his role as Maureen’s supportive husband.
★★★☆
