7 Days (2010, R)

This French film is about a man whose 8-year-old daughter goes missing on the way to school and is found later in the worst way.  He abducts the man who committed the crime (en route to jail/courthouse; it's pretty certain he did it though he has not been tried or sentenced yet) and decides to torture him to death over the course of (you guessed it) seven days and then turn himself in to the authorities.  Meanwhile the ranking police officer who worked the case of the man's daughter is trying to find him, as much or more so to save the father as the original perpetrator.

I was bracing myself for this movie to be "torture porn", a sub-category of movies that have amped-up gruesomeness and just enough plot to keep it going, but was happy that this time it would be cathartic in that the victim of the torture would be a horrible horrible person rather than an innocent abductee.  I was pleasantly surprised that the movie had a lot more depth and complexity than that.  The father and mother in the story have complicated feelings about the loss of their daughter: mixed in with the obvious grief are guilt for themselves in failing to prevent this and anger at each other for failing to prevent it (circumstances in the story show how someone could feel this way though it was not unequivocally their fault), which reminds me of one of the very good elements of the Lars von Trier film Antichrist.  The police officer has some personal history and character development of his own, and while he is not nearly as much the focus of the film as the father, he is certainly the next strongest character in the story.  This complexity of a good man trying to catch and/or redeem a recently-innocent man bent on revenge reminds me a bit of Law Abiding Citizen.  None of these films I've mentioned so far are quite easy to watch, but all are very good in their own ways, and 7 Days follows suit.  This movie is also about the struggle with the father during the 7 days of relevance.  He is a good doctor, not only in terms of skill but in his compassion and desire to help others.  We see his struggle over continuing with his original plan, and his transformation due not only from the things that have happened to him but also from what he himself is doing.  As Nietzshe said, "He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you."

Visually I was impressed with the quality of the film.  The only requisite special effects were the torture scenes, which were mercifully only once per day, but I find myself curious as to how they filmed some of these scenes.  Non-American films tend not to rely very much on computer animation effects, and when they do it is glaringly obvious.  This movie either used practical effects (maybe with cadavers?  I can't imagine they used live people or even animals for these scenes!) or else they had remarkably well-integrated computer animation for the wounds.  The acting looked to be spot-on, but being non-native to the language and culture of the film, my ability to recognize sub-par acting has an unfortunate limitation.  The film is largely without ambient music which I found effective in forcing the viewer to be fully in-the-moment for the sorrow and for the horror.  Last but not least, the film shots and cuts of the early part of the film were extremely good at introducing the characters and situations very quickly and effectively but without feeling rushed.  I compare it in that regard to parts of Dead Snow, which is high praise from me.  However the extremely limited dialogue and complete lack of voice-over (which will be a very positive point for many) does leave much of the character developments under the surface and require you to be an active viewer or else it's a waste.

Overall, this is not an easy movie to watch, but it doesn't spend as much screen time in torture as you might fear.  The early part is hard emotionally but it is very good storytelling and has very limited visual gruesomeness; it's later that you might want to avert your eyes at parts, though the story told at that part is still worthy of attention.  This is kind of opposite of some movies that I didn't like as much through most of it, but that did have a redeeming payoff in the end (like True Adolescents); but both of these stories still would be very incomplete from watching only the beginning, and both of the ends require you to see the early part in order to appreciate the end.  (As an aside, exceptions to this rule are Van Wilder, which you can watch until they talk about making pastries at which time you can turn it off and not be any the worse for it, or The Brown Bunny, in which you can skip all but the final scene which is still not for everyone).  I found myself very impressed with this movie, but I have to wonder if this might be a factor of limited expectations.  Regardless, I'd call it a 4 star movie.  If you want a more intellectual, less action-oriented, version of Law Abiding Citizen and if you liked Antichrist, then this movie is for you.  If you abhor violence, or don't want to see gore, or if you are the parent of a child (who is obviously not in the room!) then you might want to stay away.  Oh, and FYI, the torture victim is naked the whole time so there's a fair amount of non-sexual penis in this movie.  If you watch the film, brace yourself visually and open yourself up emotionally, and you're in for quite a journey.