Cache is a French film starring Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche (Chocolat) as Georges Laurent, a television talk-show host and his wife, Anne, who have begun to receive anonymous packages containing surveillance videotape of their lives. Now, when reading the premise, I thought the movie sounded very interesting, even somewhat titillating. I saw that the film was compared to a Hitchcock styled movie and was further intrigued. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth. The videos are strange in that they merely show the front of the family’s flat over a period of time, as if to say, “I see you.” They are also accompanied by childish drawings of a boy with blood flowing from his mouth or a chicken with it's throat cut. Random, brief scenes of this same child are thrown in from time to time, leading you to believe that this child is somehow watching the family or involved somehow in the present time story. Then, as time progresses and frustrations build, another video is received depicting the path to a run-down apartment. Of course, Georges takes this as a clue to find the apartment and when he does, he discovers that Majid, someone he knew as a child, lives there. Apparently, Majid's parents were Armenians who worked for Georges' parents and Majid lost his parents in a civil demonstration. Georges' parents had intended to adopt him, however Georges told a lie which made his parent’s question Majid's sanity, and he was instead sent away to live in an orphanage.
Of course, Georges assumes that it must be Majid who is sending him the somewhat threatening videos since he destroyed Majid's childhood and when he confronts him, matters only worsen. Georges and Anne's marriage deteriorates as their trust in one another becomes strained since Georges won’t share his suspicions as to who the stalker is. Confrontations occur between Majid, Georges and Majid's teenaged son, however when the end of the movie arrives, you are still left wondering who actually sent the tapes. There is no closure to this film and I was completely disappointed in it.
Regardless of the accolades that this film received at the Cannes Film Festival, I felt it wasn't suspenseful and thrilling, but rather draining and disappointing. See it if you must, but when I wade through nearly two hours of subtitles only to not even discover the true culprit's identity, I feel rather let down.
