by SARAH ROWLAND

It’s not often critics from competing publications turn to each other at the end of a press screening for help or some sort of an explanation. That’s because usually an ending that doesn’t add up is preceeded by a middle and beginning that don’t add up.

But Caché is an exceptionally intelligent, tautly paced suspense film that fully engages viewers for all but the last two minutes, which makes those inconclusive final moments that much more frustrating—and not in the Memento kind of way, where a rush of theories come flooding to your frontal lobe. No, just in a what-the-fuck-just-happened kind of a way.

Having said that, this French thriller is not only worth checking out once, but it’s probably good for a second viewing as well. Anne (Juliette Binoche) and Georges Laurent (Daniel Auteuil) are sophisticated literary types—she’s a publisher and he’s the host of his open-book talk show. In their spare time, the Laurents throw dinner parties for their equally cultured friends. Life is good. But when they start getting mysterious videotapes that indicate someone is watching their every move, the happy couple’s world starts to implode.

While Georges has theories as to who is terrorizing them, he won’t let his wife in on it and this starts to take its toll on the marriage. Meanwhile, their teenage son has turned against both of them.

One of the clever devices that director/writer Michael Haneke uses to slowly build the tension is enlarging the family’s TV screen to fill the space of the movie screen so that half the time viewers aren’t quite sure if they’re watching the actual movie or playback of the stalker’s tapes. But what really makes Caché stand out among the plethora of stalker films is the way Haneke is able to manipulate the threat of violence to the very last frame without the use of any clichéd predator/prey moves like drawn-out chase scenes.

There’s no doubt this is one whodunit worth seeing, but word to the wise: when this one-hour and 57-minute film gets close to the 1:55 mark, keep your eye on the top-left-hand corner ’cause if you miss it, you’re screwed.

Caché opens at Cinéma du Parc on Friday, Jan. 20

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