Anthracite (Netflix): Noémie Schmidt shines in a too-wise thriller (review)
A story of an Alpine sect that struggles to convince, saved by the astonishing performance of its star actress, a refreshing investigator 2.0.
It's the thriller of the week, to discover on Netflix from today. Anthracite comes out this Wednesday on the platform and tells in six short episodes a story of a sect, in the heart of the Ecrins massif. 30 years after a collective suicide which shocked the entire valley, the guru is talked about again, while corpses begin to appear again around a controversial mine. The gendarmerie is rowing and it is a web investigator, looking for her missing father, who will unravel the threads of the mystery. A specialist in “web sleuthing” (real cases resolved online by a community of hyper-connected Internet users), Ida and her forum “iData” set out on the trail of the killer…
On the heels of the exciting Furieswho rode the hyper-fighting trend of John Wick, Netflix unveils its new French thriller, much wiser. With its little “Thursday thriller on TF1” side (logical, since the series is created by Fanny Robert And Maxime Berthemyduo of screenwriters behind Profiling), Anthracite struggles to go beyond the framework of the classic mountain detective series. In sumptuous settings, ideally filmed by Julius Berg (Osmosis), this cult story gets bogged down with smokey twists and crude revelations. A lame thriller that is far too wise in the end, which never manages to live up to its promises.
Because there was with Anthracite the possibility of making an original French-style “true crime”, with an offbeat tone, focusing on the real success of the series: Ida. Undeniably, the good idea of the script was based on the concept of the “web detective”, carried by a Noémie Schmidt solar. The Swiss actress (crossed in 3615 Monica And Versailles) brings crazy energy to this worn-out crime plot. By putting “web sleuthing” at the center of the investigation, Ida breathes new vitality into the genre, giving Anthracite its best moments, some visually very cool virtual investigation sequences. Without a doubt, this should have been the fuel of the series. Unfortunately, Ida and her community of investigators 2.0 disappear little by little to leave more room for the mystery of the sect and the traditional thriller. “Web sleuthing” thus becomes a simple gadget brought out once per episode, when the series should certainly have been entirely designed around it. Damage.
Anthracite, season 1 in 6 episodes, to watch on Netflix from Wednesday April 10, 2024.
