Time of the Wolf (2003)

IMDb plot summary: When Anna and her family arrive at their holiday home, they find it occupied by strangers. This confrontation is just the beginning of a painful learning process.

Directed by Michael Haneke. Stars Isabelle Huppert, Anaïs Demoustier, and Béatrice Dalle.

Time of the Wolf is a Michael Haneke film set in a vaguely apocalyptic setting where food is scarce and people are fending for themselves. We follow a widow and her two children as they make their way and ultimately end up joining in with a large group of other wanderers hoping to make their way somewhere better. I really go back and forth on Michael Haneke. Some of his, like Amour or The Seventh Continent absolutely break me in the best way, and I love them. And then others, like The White Ribbon or this, just kind of leave me cold. On the surface, I should love the apocalyptic nature of this story, but it moves so glacially that I can't stay interested. That pace does lend itself to a sense of doom -- that the world is broken and can never be put back together -- but not in a way that I find particularly compelling. Overall, a good concept that ended up being pretty disappointing for me personally.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Time of the Wolf (2003)

📊 Ranked #2816/4307 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 39

lost to Lenny (#2168 → #2100)

beat The Forger (#3255 → #3287)

lost to The Asphalt Jungle (#2704 → #2623)

beat Anything Else (#2983 → #2998)

beat Flightplan (#2845 → #2833)

lost to Superman (#2779 → #2782)

lost to Green Street Hooligans (#2812 → #2791)

beat Mad Dog and Glory (#2828 → #2836)

beat ¡Three Amigos! (#2820 → #2828)

lost to The Love Witch (#2816 → #2757)

lost to Laura (#2818 → #2696)

beat Unsung Hero (#2819 → #2817)