7 days is another foreign-language film where the title seems to have been under-translated. The original French title of Les 7 jours du talion seems to translate pretty obviously into The 7 days of Retaliation; so why the truncation? Does someone think people are too stupid to know what retaliation means?
The film is quite hard to watch, since it deals with the aftermath of a child's murder. The scene setting is also quite graphic; so you know you are in for something hard-hitting.
But, for me, the film quickly loses its way. The parents' grief is passed over too rapidly. The wife is sidelined for most of the film. The cop (Mercure) who should have been as important to the story as the doctor (Hamel) isn't explored enough; and he interacts with Hamel in a mostly superficial way.
This could have been a powerful examination of the conflicts facing a father torn between the law and his need to exact a personal vengeance. But it isn't. I suspect the original novel is much better at exploring Hamel's state of mind.
No-one can know how they would react in such a terrible situation. I think the film is trying to show the conflict between right and wrong. But that isn't the point. As a viewer I'm not really interested in whether he is morally right or wrong, or even if he thinks he is morally right or wrong. What I care about is whether the portrayal is convincing or not. Does this look like a possible reaction to a crisis? To me it didn't.
Hamel's actions are not believable. And for that reason the movie fails. At the end it didn't matter to me whether Hamel killed Lemaire or not.
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