‘The Birthday Party’ Review: Monica Bellucci & Benoit Magimel In Disturbing French Home-Invasion Thriller – Cannes Film Festival

About 11 days ago the 79th Cannes Film Festival opened with a lighthearted French comedy, The Electric Kiss. That indicated to me they were getting the fun stuff out of the way in order to go really dark for the next 10 days. That has been pretty much the case, so it’s not surprising that the very last Competition film, premiering Friday night, doesn’t exactly make you leave the Palais walking on air.

The Birthday Party seems like a fun title but you don’t want an invite to this one. Based on the book Histoires de la Nuit by Laurent Mauvignier, this is yet another home-invasion thriller, a well-worn genre that I think has never gotten a whole lot better than 1955’s The Desperate Hours with Humphrey Bogart and Fredric March (not the ’90s remake), and in terms of real life, none tops the beginning of Richard Brooks’ brilliant 1967 film In Cold Blood from Truman Capote’s book on the Cutter Family murders. That same year, Wait Until Dark scared me to death when bad guys terrorized a blind Audrey Hepburn. The original Straw Dogs was good, so was Panic Room.

It is tough to improve on these, and French director Lee Mysius (Ada, Fire Devil) doesn’t quite get there, though her intense drama has its moments.

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