Liberally lifting tropes from the aforementioned torture porn series (and its green/grey color palate), as well as Antichrist, The Lovely Bones, and even Silence of the Lambs, Daniel Grou's revenge drama doesn't have an original bone in its body. However, with steady direction, strong central performances, and a script that keeps its dialogue light, it may feel like a million movies stuck in a blender, but at least its palatable.
After a surgeon's (Claude Legault) daughter is raped and murdered (The Lovely Bones) while he and his wife have sex (Antichrist), he decides to kidnap the assailant and torture him to death over the course of seven days, the last day being his daughter's ninth birthday; or would have been, if she wasn't raped and murdered. Did I mention that she was? Because Grou presents the crime subtly at first, keeping his distance from the body when her father discovers it. Then showing us blood on her skirt, and a lifeless hand. And then, in case we didn't figure it out, her panties ripped and bloody around her ankles, and her gashed and lifeless face. Even Peter Jackson's recent foray into pedophilia wasn't so blatant or cruel.
Paralleled with Lagualt's struggle is Remy Girard's detective, who's wife was murdered senselessly six months earlier. Do the two bond over the phone even as Girard tries to track down the brilliant surgeon? Have you ever seen a movie before?
If anything, the most curious part of 7 Days is that it's lacking Grou standing in the corner of the screen while it runs, imploring Hollywood to just remake his film already, or at least give him a job directing Ashley Judd's next thriller. Though, if remade for American audiences, it would still have the essential problem that its a mish-mash of every thriller ever made.
As mentioned, there are a few saving graces. Legault and Girard are both grounded, magnetic presences, reminiscent of Gerard Butler and Tom Wilkinson respectively (I assume they would play the parts in the remake). And while Grou's direction is rather self indulgent, staying far too long on certain shots and vistas, and indulging in a little too much of the old ultra-violence for this reviewer's tastes, he also knows how to control the camera, and frame a shot. It's the script by Patrick Senecal, based on his own novel, that is hackneyed to the max -- a recurring motif showing Legault unable to get rid of a slowly decaying deer's corpse is blunt to the point of trauma -- even if the dialogue is simple and sparse. Grou's direction, at least, makes the film watchable.
Aja Les 7 jours du talion.
I can torture you au francais.
