Truly Dreadful Film

Boring, long, and too preachy.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

As the prosecutor states: a third of the population is on neuroleptics, another third are cowards. Selfishness, cowardness, guilt and shame are the fabric of this slow paced, Scandinavian style movie. It is a false thriller. The true murderer is the social breakdown.It reminded me of "12 angry men" with a twist. 38 zombies would be more appropriate. With beautiful images of Le Havre port where, in a sequence, loaders and machines dance a threatening ballet. A disheartening but relevant subject movies are not supposed to cover.Yvan Attal looks stubbornly stoned face which is the only proper attitude. He seems to know exactly his fate. The cast plays well, anger, guilt or shame, which is not an easy task.

"38 témoins" aka "38 witnesses" is an adaptation from David Decoin's 2009 Novel entitles "Est-ce ainsi que les femmes meurent" (Do women die like this?). The Novel as the film was inspired by a true crime story that occurred in 1964 in Queens New York where a local woman was stabbed, sexually assaulted and murdered in public as her neighbors ignored her cries for help.The film from director Lucas Belvaux focuses on one couple played by Ivan Attal (Pierre Morvand)and Sophie Quinton as his wife Louise who is coming back from a trip in China and understands that a young woman was murdered in the street she lives in. At the time of the crime her husband Pierre was working late and so wasn't home when the crime occurred…so he says… But the police and a journalist (the beautiful Nicole Garcia) are investigating. One of the witnesses is having a different version than the 37 others. One of the witnesses can't look anymore into his wife's eyes. One of the witnesses has caught a terrible disease: Guilt. A disease for which the only cure is confession; a confession so hard to do it can only be delivered in a sleep, during a dream or a nightmare. And this witness is Pierre (Ivan Attal).What if you were confronted to an event that would spoil the Tranquility of your Life, the Routine of it? What if this event would command you to do something that' you've never done before? What if doing nothing is indeed doing something, turning into a placid monster? After confronting this moment of disgusting Truth about yourself, you may survive the confrontation, but the loss of Love might be the price to pay. You'll witness the Love fading in the eyes of your wife, of your kids of your friends but also in your own eyes…Superbly filmed and through a well-crafted narration "38 witnesses" emerges as a powerful movie about the darkest hour of our Soul. The movie works as a step by step psychological confrontation between the worst of you that can rise from cowardice, apathy and the search for redemption that follows. The price to pay is proportionate to the damage you've provoke. Be ready to empty your Life from the only thing you cannot live without: Love.

I read the other comments for this film. I respect this point of view, but don't share it. That doesn't mean I am right and they are wrong. I consider this film as a brilliant, unusual, daring and powerful drama. One more masterpiece directed by Lucas Belvaux, who already gave us RAPT, in 2009, starring the same Yvan Attal at his peak. His best. The story of a murder committed at night, in a neighbourhood where every one heard or saw the killing BUT without calling the police. Because of their fear, their cowardice. Only one among them, one week later, dares admitting to his wife that he actually heard a long cry in the night. A cry of agony. He goes to the police and tells the truth. But afterwards, a journalist gets the information and each one of the 38 witnesses of the crime is aware of the courageous man's - Attal - behavior which points out their own cowardice...A tense, poignant gripping downbeat film that I won't forget.

I'm sorry, but this movie might be the worst I've ever seen. It's about a murder which happens in an Urban area, in Le Havre, but no one claims to have seen nor heard anything. Of course, they are lying. This could be quite an interesting subject, but in this movie it's not. It is never explained why the witnesses didn't do or say anything. In the meantime a lot of people are staring at each other, using big words without meaning and making a problem out of nothing. And we get shots of the port of Le Havre which doesn't seem to have any purpose either. Not to mention the acting is really not any good, in particular Sophie Quinton is terrible. It would be nice if they tried to find a psychological explanation for this, but they don't. Instead there are these typical cliché characters, the noisy reporter, the straight up policeman and the antihero. I really regret seeing this and would not recommend it to anyone.