‘The Origin of Evil’ Review: An Enticing French Drama of Family Wealth, Featuring a New-Style Femme Fatale
variety.comOwen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic A femme fatale is in the business of fooling people, though we’ve seen enough of these characters to be overly familiar with their tricks.
Maybe that’s why, in 2023, the most effective femme fatale is one who can fool the audience. Take Stéphane (Laure Calamy), the desperate young woman at the center of the delectable French family thriller “The Origin of Evil.” The film’s rather abstract title could refer to several things, but the most accurate is probably the cliché that first leaps to mind: Money is the root of all evil.
For money — what it can and cannot do, and what people will do to get it — is the film’s theme, and the toxic life force that courses through it.
When we meet Stéphane, she’s in the women’s locker room of the fish plant she works at on an assembly line; her job consists of placing anchovies in small packages that will be shipped to supermarkets.
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