Take a deep breath, you cinefillic voyeur! Take a deep breath, sit down comfortably on your couch and think twice before you press play on your remote controller... Think twice since you are about to witness something that has never been seen before... Actually it has been seen later, but in much more unoriginal and uninteresting way. What you are about to witness in this movie is something between ON and OFF; you'll hear one of the greatest movie dialog ever spoken, you'll see thestunning performance of unbelievably excellent Polanski and surprisingly good Depardieu; you'll learn how the direction of the movie is supposed to be handled; you'll realize that you just THOUGHT that you know what is your life turning into... And finally, you'll find out the meaning of word MASTERPIECE.

This movie was a very interesting movie. Somewhat suspenseful but intriguing is a better description. It is very well done. At the end things suddenly change and I caught part of the meaning of the film. But then I stayed afterwards and heard other people discussing the film and I began to see there is so much more to this film than first meets the eye.

I really liked this film and I think if it was in English I could have grasped some things better. Even though this is a foreign film (in French) with English subtitles I still found it to be an excellent film.

The rest of my review has some spoilers but it may help you understand the film. (if you like to interpret the film yourself you may want to watch it first before reading my interpretation of what is happening). Here is what I think is going on in the movie:

While watching this movie it appears to be a typical story. A man got murdered. The main character is being investigated as being the possible murderer. Right at the end of the movie you learn the main character is actually dead and had committed suicide. The person he murdered was actually himself. The man is actually dead and is somewhere in between life and after life. His suicide has complicated some things and that is why he is going through this process. It's almost as though he is on trial for killing himself and reliving parts of his life. It's almost as though he could not go on to the afterlife because he ended his life prematurely and because of this he has to learn that he was dead. The guy doesn't know that he is dead until the very end of the movie (and the audience doesn't know that either).

That is interesting in itself but the movie goes one step further. If you pay attention you'll see that some of the other people involved in the movie are angels or some type of guardians to the afterlife. Other people are alive in the movie and seem to be ignoring this guy but later you realize he is being ignored by the living because he is dead and they are not aware of his presence. And I imagine there more things going on but this gives you a good idea what is happening.

This movie reminds you of the surprise that came at the end of the movie "The Sixth Sense" however there are more dimensions to this movie. It may be hard to catch everything that is going on and this is the type of movie you may want to see twice. However it is a very creative and interesting movie. I'd give this a score of 9 out of 10 stars.

In fact I liked the Sixth Sense but this movie is better. The ending is what made the Sixth Sense a great movie (8 out of 10 stars). However without that clever ending the Sixth Sense would have just been an average film. Likewise the ending makes this movie a great movie. However the other parts of this film add a lot of dimensions and interest to everything and the whole thing is a more creative concept.

That is why I think this movie ("Pure Formality") is even better than the "Sixth Sense".