The seemingly ubiquitous Belgian actor and all-round arthouse stud-muffin Matthias Schoenaerts (whose virile yet sensitive mug was recently seen in A Bigger Splash, The Danish Girl and A Little Chaos) stars here as a virile yet sensitive soldier suffering from PTSD and mild hearing loss. On extended leave from the army in the south of France, he takes a security job looking after the beautiful but somehow sad Euro wife (Diane Kruger) of an uber-rich Lebanese businessman and the couple’s adorable moppet son (Zaïd Errougui-Demonsant) while the husband goes on a mysterious business trip. Although as a thriller this is sort of tosh, with illogical plot holes you could drive a luxury SUV through, writer-director Alice Winocour and whoever was in charge of sound design do a great job at suggesting that our hero might be hearing the sounds of danger approaching, or just imagining threats hidden in night-time bumps and honking that blend skilfully with the techno score. Likewise, the inky, nervily handheld cinematography creates similarly ambiguous shadows. There’s a shameful pleasure to be had in ogling the plush lifestyle, perfectly conveyed through the set decoration, and then seeing it all get messed up and covered in blood by the end.
