“In The Name Of My Daughter” is a different sort of murder mystery

By Jenny Alvarez

Photos Agency

During 116 minutes with French language and English subtitles “In The Name Of My Daughter” directed by Andre Techine with a well written script by Jean-Charles Leroux, Andre Techine and Cédric Anger. This gripping thriller begings with the young divorcee Agnès Le Roux (Cesar winner Adèle Haenel) falls for shady lawyer Maurice Agnelet (Tell No One director Guillaume Canet), allowing him to manipulate her into handing the casino run by her mother, Renée (Catherine Deneuve), over to the mob. The subsequent disappearance of Agnès and Maurice’s emigration to Panama with her money convinces Renée that he has murdered her, and so she swears to see justice served. Definitely, Andre gives an artistic approach through a clear dialogue but through art as well. Deneuve was good, Canet charming yet annoying – something the part called for – and Haenel probably best – emotional, unstable yet powerful -, they were given much to work with story-wise. This film is full of elements for examination of unpredictability/duplicity in human nature that Canet is known for. It also has many ways deceit and sexual passions can be fatefully misunderstood but at the end of the story, the viewer will get flashes of a really good melodrama involving a passionate love and an epic clash between mother and daughter only for things to blur and reflects the bravery of a mother who has prepared to spend her remaining years and diminished fortune seeking justice in the name of her daughter.