The Origin of Evil

Damn, if I don’t love a fucked up rich family drama. Nothing like growing up in an environment where all of your needs are so obviously taken care of that it makes all of your wants take on that same level of seeming necessity. And when you can’t get that want despite all your money, uh-oh. Or, oh hell yeah. Because that’s where a great story happens. Needless to say, The Origin of Evil is right up my street.

The Origin of Evil‘s rich and fucked up family is headed by patriarch, Serge Dumontet. Serge very much thinks money can get him anything he wants. And he’s usually proven right. Serge’s family consists of his wife, Louise; daughters, George and Jeanne and their stony maid, Agnès. Elsewhere, we meet a woman who works in a factory, has a girlfriend in prison and struggles with major financial insecurity. The connection is that Serge has an illegitimate daughter named Stéphane, who’s never reached out. But now, Stéphane shows up to reveal the cracks, the drama and the rotten centre of this rich family. And Stéphane has many secrets of her own.

The Origin of Evil is such an imminently watchable film. It’s a great, engaging story that sucks you in and keeps you there. The directing rises to the challenge of putting this story onscreen. And the story itself is more than just a great concept. The Origin of Evil has really excellent pacing through most of it. The plot reveals happen just when you think you’re comfortable with the movie. There’s a great scene right at the halfway mark between Stéphane and her girlfriend. The scene itself is largely an argument between the two but also hinges the two halves of the movie together. It’s a clear turning point for the lead character. If you were to break down the story beats of The Origin of Evil like it’s an in-class exercise, you’d come out with a pretty great template of how to structure a story like this.

The Origin of Evil populates its great story with excellent characters. The members of the Dumontet family are all individuals. They’ve all got their individual weirdness and issues. But they also work together as a character. Stéphane enters the story as an outsider to these strange individuals at least initially present as a united front. And even when that shatters, the dynamics between different members of the family are all so unique and tense. Laure Calamy gives a great lead performance in the film. But many of the other actors make great attempts at stealing the show. The always excellent Suzanne Clément has a great turn as Stéphane’s girlfriend. But the real standout for me was Jacques Weber as patriarch, Serge. Like a French Logan Roy, Weber presents an inherent sense of privilege and with it, an anger that flares when he doesn’t get what he wants.

I love movies like The Origin of Evil. And The Origin of Evil is a pretty great example of the fucked up rich family melodrama. The thriller elements in the story are really well done as well. There’s a sense of chilling cruelty to many of the character’s choices and eventual violence. All while surrounded by displays of such fragile, material wealth. This is a movie I don’t want to reveal much about as there are several excellent revelations that made the movie a delight to go into cold. So all I have left to say about The Origin of Evil is that it’s good and you should watch it.

Overall rating: 7.4/10

Other WLW films in similar genres