The Birthday Party

There’s easily another version of this story that could have been the movie of the week on Netflix, but Mysius and her team are too talented, too adroitly adept at merging the universal emotions of their characters with the cultural specificity of this story, to deliver anything less than compelling.

Mysius is a rigorously attentive filmmaker, obsessed by the small details that make up the frames of a thriller, who I’d love to be served by better material that isn’t such a by-the-numbers thriller.

At heart, though, this is just a suspense movie with some decent twists and an excellent turn from Tawba El Gharchi as Ida, Thomas and Nora’s fiery young daughter.

Lea Mysius’s third feature is a taut exploration of family, identity and betrayal, with a claustrophobic atmosphere and strong performances from Hafsia Herzi and Monica Bellucci. But conventional plotting and a relentlessly sombre tone mean that The Birthday Party never truly comes alive.

The tension is capably managed and Magimel is a gargoyle of menace.

The overlap of the two households, which offers an exciting narrative possibility, peters out with predictable cynicisms, while the climax is borderline comedic in its forced symbolism about family bonds.

For all The Birthday Party’s faults, the benefits of her assured direction, a confident and watchable cast, and further dissection of the film’s signature themes of generational trauma are obfuscated by unignorable flaws.