A Silence * * * *

Dad, is there something you need to tell us?  

At any time during the first half of this film I could have easily walked out.  It seemed quite lost for direction and seemingly random, misplaced information kept piling up.

Set in Belgium it is loosely based on a true story.  We meet a barrister, Francois Scarr, who has taken on a  highly controversial case. Every day the press are gathered outside his home looking for information (I know how they feel. I wanted some too).  

In the sanctuary of the home, he talks to his wife and adopted teenage son but again not much is forthcoming.   
Then his daughter visits and speaks to the mother. 
Pierre is going to sue Dad. She tells Mum.
But that was thirty years ago, says Mum.  Why now?  Besides he has had treatment to cure himself.

What on earth are they talking about?!

Whatever it is, it seem that something from the past is just about to come back to bite Monsieur Scarr.

He gets on the phone and tells his client he can no longer represent them. 

What's all this about?  And so it builds and builds for nearly an hour.  Something is very wrong but we can't identify it.  So much jumbled information was beginning to test this viewers patience. 

Then the police come.  They raid the home. They search thoroughly, especially for electronic devices: computers, discs, external hard drives are seized.  They take M.Scarr to the police station to question him.

Now it all becomes clear and it's not what you'd expect. This man who is a champion of the oppressed and the mistreated has a penchant and an addiction to something truly vile.  His nephew Pierre knows about it all too well.

The sins of a father and the fallout that impacts his wife, his son, and his daughter now makes for a drama of Classic Greek proportion, especially as his adopted son turns Oedipal.

I can't tell you much more without spoiling it but go see it and endure the confusion of the first half.  Don't lose patience. The truth is ugly but the rewards of watching a powerful drama are there.

It stars Daniel Auteuil, in a brave and uncompromising role, very well played.