This is one of the most harrowing thrillers I have ever seen. It essentially is a retelling of the Hansel and Gretel legend, where the waifs are two French students fleeing the police after their brutal impulse slaying of an Arab student, and the wicked witch is a woodsman with cannibalistic and pederastic leanings. I am always surprised when movies like this get made, first, because of the outré nature of the plot, and secondly, because the directorial talent involved, coming, apparently, out of nowhere, seems too good to be true. The final scene, in which wide-eyed Disneyesque forest creatures preside over the coupling of the young lovers, left me giggling in appreciation. The movie is infused with this same inerrant sense of irony. Not a movie for the faint-hearted, though.
Review of Criminal Lovers
