L'Adversaire (2002)
Directed by Nicole Garcia

Film Review

Nicole Garcia's fourth film is based on a novel by Emmanuel Carrère, drawn from the true story of a serial killer, Jean-Claude Romand who, for twenty years, managed to pass himself off as a physician without having any medical qualifications.  The same case inspired another film, Laurent Cantet's L'Emploi du temps (2001), although Garcia's film is far closer to the facts, some of which are shockingly horrific.

It is inevitable that comparisons will be made between Cantet's film and Garcia's, although the tone and subject of the two films are markedly different.  Cantet's is a sombre portrait of a man who temporarily loses meaning in his life and is compelled to hang onto a deception to avoid the shame of having lost his job.  Garcia's film, by contrast, tries to convey the isolation and anguish of a man who has lived for most of his adult life without purpose yet who still manages to hold together a family and convince his friends he has a great career.  Cantet's film just about manages to end happily, whilst Garcia's ends as the grimmest of Greek tragedies.  Both films are haunting and emotionally intense, but Cantet's has the edge, probably because the situation and characters feel more real, the narrative is less fragmented, and the direction and photography are slightly more sophisticated.

The main difficulty with L'Adversaire is its gratuitously jumbled narrative construction, which does make it a struggle to engage with the film.  Instead of a conventional linear unravelling of the plot building to a shocking climax, which would have been the obvious and far more natural approach, the film jumps back and forth between past, present and future, and as a result lacks any kind of structural or emotional coherence.  What saves the film is a stunning contribution from Daniel Auteuil, who gives his best performance for years.  His moving, introspecting portrayal of a man driven insane by shame is harrowingly convincing, and, somehow the casually instigated killings have far greater bite when they are acted out by Auteuil, a man who is best known for playing sympathetic characters.

Whilst it could undoubtedly have been better, there is no denying that L'Adversaire is a film with some impact.  Aside from the killings - which are executed with a touch of minimalist genius on Garcia's part - the chilling solitude of a man who finally snaps having borne the weight of a necessary deceit for so long is conveyed to great effect.  Whilst it is massively disappointing that the psychology of the central character isn't explored more fully, the film does offer a truly disturbing exploration of the darker side of the human psyche.

Film Synopsis

For the past fifteen years, Jean-Marc Faure has kept up the deception that he is a brilliant physician with a senior position in the World Health Organisation.  No one - not his closest friends, his wife, even his parents - knows the truth, that he didn't even graduate from medical school.  Then, one day, those around him begin to suspect something is wrong.  His bank account is overdrawn and he appears to be getting further and further into debt.  Small lies are easily exposed.  It looks as if Jean-Marc's secret is suddenly about to be uncovered.  He cannot allow that to happen.  It will not happen...