Hidden Details

Worst. Film. Ever.

Utter merde. Every bit as bad as most people here have said, and then some.

I like French films. I like films that are difficult, or challenging, or don't pan out the way I would expect. I sometimes like films that are ambiguous or lack resolution. None of these things excuse Hidden for its appalling, implausible story and its deliberate 'two fingers to you, viewer' lack of an ending.

At the core of this film is a laughably stupid conceit - the idea that the unfriendly behaviour of a boy of six years old towards another could haunt him into his adulthood and lead to repressed feelings of guilt. Come on. Have you ever met any kids, Michael Haneke? They are sometimes a bit mean to each other. Big deal. Don't use it as some cr-ppy metaphor for international politics. It doesn't hold up.

Despite what you may have heard, this film has nothing to say about politics. Or Algeria, or immigration, or French colonial history. It's an utterly implausible and deeply boring story that doesn't withstand any scrutiny whatsoever.

Apparently, Haneke has said that anyone who still wants to know at the end who is sending the tapes 'hasn't understood the film.' Oh pur-lease. It's a film based entirely around the story of these mysterious surveillance tapes, and a couple's attempts to find out who is sending them. It's the only thing that moves the narrative forward.

Nothing in this film makes sense or is believable. The flashback scenes to the chilhood will leave you scratching your head thinking 'yeah, and...... ?' The sudden suicide is just horrible and unnecessary. A waste of two brilliant actors. If you want to see Auteuil

and Binoche in something decent, rent La Veuve de St Pierre instead. That film is slow, but it's an absolute masterpiece compared to this dross.

Not deep. Just rubbish.

Avoid. Like the plague.

[Highly rated reviewer]

unusual thriller

If you wanted a plot with a clear cut ending, this film is not for you. This thriller is all about emotions where guilt plays a big part. Who's done it is irrelevant and left to the viewer to decide. It is also about success and failure, about oportunities, about race. The acting is fabulous, Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche 'crevent l'ecran'.Must see.