The Slap: a review of the film by Frédéric Hambalek

THEOR SLAP
Type: comedy, psychological ✦✦✦
Direction: Frédéric Hambalek. With Julia Jentsch, Felix Kramer, Laeni Geiseler

Almost certainly inspired by What Maisie knew by Henry James, (where the novelist adopted the point of view of an only daughter to expose the miseries of divorced parents), The slap by Hambalek presented at the last Berlinale, adopts a fantastic premise (a slap received from a friend makes the young protagonist telepathic) to achieve the same goal.

This time, however, the family is apparently solid (but the mother flirts with a colleague, the father is frustrated and bypassed in the office, married life is boring): lThe adolescent’s omniscience undermines all mechanisms and puts adults face to face with uncomfortable truths.

Subjecting little Marielle to a useful shock therapy for what awaits her in the life to come.