Michael Haneke directs Isabelle Huppert, Jean- Louis Trintignant and Fantine Harduin in this cold farce about a disconnected upper class Calais family. 

Often feeling like a Haneke Greatest Hits Tour (murderous children filming their crimes, old relatives wanting to be euthanised, untrustworthy relationships between poshos and their immigrant servants) finally proves inconsequential. It is frothy and glossy rather than intellectual or rattling. Just as it has the Haneke seal of quality on it, does not mean he has anything new to say, or fertile ideas to re-explore. It feels very much like a placeholder made by a director because he could fund a film this year, rather than he should. It is sunnily shot, Fantine Harduin puts in a good child performance as the bad seed among the bad eggs, and the few moments when the family interact with the local dispossessed African immigrants have a laugh-worthy, open mouth shock.

4