A Parting Shot

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Audience Member French star Isild Le Besco (L?intouchable/The Untouchable) gives her strongest performance to date as a Swiss nurse who seriously wounds a tempestuous teenager when she tries to commit suicide and then has to care for him daily in her hospital ward. The simple premise is effectively executed in an old-fashioned -- but never musty -- way that recalls the work of crime writers such as Patricia Highsmith who are more interested in the effects of crime on human behaviour than the crimes per se. The film very much deserves wider exposure at festivals and in European arthouses. "Everyone says you don?t have problems with the dead," Frédérique or Fred (Le Besco) is told by one of her colleagues early on in the film. "Don?t believe everything they say," she replies dryly, only hours before going to see her ex boyfriend to say goodbye because she is going on a trip "somewhere" for an indefinite time. A champion sharpshooter in her youth, Fred has grown up to become a nurse who feels isolated enough from the world to decide that it might as well go on turning without her. When, on a secluded spot in the forest, the moment has come to pull the trigger, Fred shoots a young pest who has just used his sling on his schoolmate in the groves below instead. Is it the shock of possibly having taken a life that does not belong to her that makes her feel alive, or the simple realisation that she could not possibly shoot herself? Whatever the reason, Fred has returned to the land of the living and takes up her daily routine again as if nothing has happened -- until she sees the victim turn up on her ward. Marco (Steven de Almeida) is a 14-year-old son of a divorced Portuguese mother (Lio) and a Swiss father (Yves Verhoeven) and has plenty of issues of his own, including uncontrollable outbursts of anger that soon make Fred?s colleagues turn their patient over to her. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/01/23 Full Review Audience Member Very good movie. Both Islid and Lio have given fantastic performances. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/21/23 Full Review Audience Member So who says that Swiss movies are boring?? Another candidate for (my personal) "Movie of the year 2008"! Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/13/23 Full Review Audience Member i could not blink my eyes. oh i was under the spell watching this movie Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Read all reviews

A Parting Shot

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