Critics reviews

By and large, though, “Only the Animals” is an effectively convincing slow-burn thriller that marks the welcome return of Moll... this is the kind of movie you have to pay quite a lot of attention to for it to make sense, but those who make the effort will be rewarded.

If it sounds critical to say that the resolution of the murder at the center of the narrative is the least interesting aspect of the movie’s intrigue, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. With each brush-stroked relationship a larger theme emerges of love’s susceptibility to signal confusion and dangerous impulse that is well acted by the cast — there’s not a bad performance in this wide web.

[T]he charismatic Bruni Tedeschi makes a predictably solid impression, which is impressive given the vaporousness of her role. The movie doesn’t deserve the actress, but its attitude toward her character is instructive.

The film’s addictive patterning draws us into its cycles of obsession as hungry observers: each part dispenses only as much new information as Moll wants to give away. It depends on million-to-one coincidences which somehow don’t dent the film’s reality, as if all the world’s a stage for love to play its cruel tricks, and the omniscient playwright is in on it.

This is film-making that really tests the elasticity of its story strands, but it largely manages to keep the audience from teetering into disbelief. For the most part, that’s thanks to persuasively solid characters and casting.

Most of the picture deals in atmospheric chicanes around the nocturnal lanes of a forbidding French countryside. Moll shoots cautiously with mysteries edging themselves just outside his elegant frame. Few will complain about the delicious perplexities of the opening hour.

Seventy years after Kurosawa did it in Rashomon, this terrific French thriller proves there’s plenty of juice left in the idea of revisiting the same events through the eyes of different characters.

Moll has given us this audacious, witty and absorbing mystery thriller, a tale of adultery and amour fou with a gamey touch of the macabre...

What unites the interlocking stories are their flashes of love and longing – often painfully, tragically unreturned. The film’s emotional side is well-handled, helped by strong performances across the board. But it’s the storytelling puzzle – the pile-up of different perspectives and gradual reveal of the facts – that makes it most worthwhile.

The film’s tone, too – striking a level balance between character study, mystery and black comedy – is consistently Coen-esque, while the revelatory, nonlinear narrative structure puts one in mind of Christopher Nolan, though with a humanity and compassion that that director often lacks.

Edgy, elusive and enthralling at the outset, Moll flirts with Rashomon-style perspectives in a remote French farming community to bracing effect.

Ultimately, Moll’s film is a cautionary tale for the lonely among us, a reminder that one step away from idealizing romance lies the risk of becoming a fool for love, which just might get you killed.