Murder in the Building

François (Gilles Lelouche) is a crime novelist whose books blend the allure of historical fiction with murder mysteries. His publisher insists that adding a few spicier sex scenes would help boost sales. The problem is that, in real life, François is a rather weary couch potato. His more dynamic wife, Colette (Laetitia Casta), is a Sorbonne film scholar specialising in thrillers. Estranged from one another, the couple unexpectedly find common ground when they begin investigating a murder in their own neighbourhood—a case that follows the twists and turns of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954) with uncanny precision. Suspicion soon falls on the theatre director living across the street.

Director Rémi Bezançon delivers a lighthearted crime comedy with a hint of marital sexual tension. Murder in the Building is an entertaining watch for cinephiles familiar with the classic that inspired it. Thanks to the charmingly bumbling chemistry of its central couple, however, the film remains less a demanding test of Hitchcock knowledge than an accessible and enjoyable introduction to the pleasures of cinematic whodunits.

Tytti Rantanen