Beware of neighbors!That's Rosemary's story,and that's the tenant's story,two great Polanski films.The camera tricks recall the Pole's style too.
"Barracuda" could have been filmed stage drama,since we do not go out of Rochefort's flat,but the director manages to give a cinematographic feel to it.Clement's character is not that much original however:he is akin to Norman Bates and Chabrol's hero in "les fantômes du chapelier"(1982).He has a fixation on Fred Astaire,and sometimes it's difficult to see the connection with what he does.When he captures and confines Luc,it works and it's suspenseful ,but superficially.That's what's it's not really Hitchcockian:in the Master's greatest movies,the Freudian mother rules (see "notorious","strangers on a train","psycho","the birds" "Marnie")What's lacking here is Clement's psychology:why does he do that?because he wants a son?because his solitude has become too unbearable?because,he's grown embittered ?because he's a frustrated gay?Except for his tastes for musicals,and his wife's death,we know absolutely nothing from Clement and it takes all Jean Rochefort's talent to make it credible.Guillaume Canet is very efficient too,and it was not an easy task to play opposite to such a veteran.
"Barracuda" is no masterpiece,but it's an interesting movie for suspense buffs ,and ,in spite of an unsatisfying ending, it'll give you a good share of scares.And if a new neighbor invites you in,think twice....
