In a luxurious villa by the sea, a modest young woman finds a strange family: an unknown and very rich father, his whimsical wife, his daughter, an ambitious businesswoman, a rebellious teenager and a disturbing servant. Someone is lying. Between suspicions and lies, mystery sets in and evil spreads…
We suspect quite early in The origin of evil that something is wrong. When Stéphane (Laure Calamy) decides to meet an unknown father (Jacques Weber) about whom we know nothing except that he is wealthy, but especially when we are introduced to the four women with whom he lives, we knows that secrets will have to be unearthed.
In a baroque atmosphere and a kitsch decor, which serve well the advance in troubled waters, the characters learn to observe themselves, to be wary. If the first moments of discomfort – clenching of the jaw guaranteed – ignite in us the spark necessary to continue, they quickly give way to caricatural and excessive verbal jousts.
The second part of the film consists of a succession of twists which gives the impression that the director is running after the spectator’s time and complicity. If Sébastien Marnier had wavered on the borders of madness, The origin of evil could have hit its target. But we always stay between two waters, which makes it a film that poorly defends its excess.
It is also hard to understand why the close guard of the patriarch only includes incarnations of female archetypes (the materialistic wife, the dark servant, the rebellious teenager and the ruthless businesswoman). If we wanted to talk about tyrannical women, we should have avoided falling into this trap.
It is equally difficult to put your finger on the intention of the film as much as on the motivations of the characters. These suffer from a great deficiency in depth, and never reveal their complexity. Laure Calamy’s acting simply does not fit her character which, on paper, is full of nuances. Dedicating an unlikely destiny to a protagonist requires much more subtlety.
Special mention to the always amazing Suzanne Clément, whose character exists in parallel with the nightmarish camera (we won’t say more). The Québécoise offers without doubt the most sincere performance of the film. Other representatives of the fleur-de-lis in the credits, the talented Pierre Lapointe and Philippe Brault sign an evocative soundtrack, which alone provides emotional discharges that the production struggles to provoke.
Despite a promising cast, it’s a murder mystery in the French bourgeoisie version, without the finesse of Chabrol or the black humor that could have compensated for the inconsistencies in the script.
Indoors
Drama
The origin of evil
Sebastien Marnier
Laure Calamy, Jacques Weber, Doria Tillier, Dominique Blanc, Suzanne Clément
2 hrs 5 mins