Netflix can be the absolute worst when it comes to acquiring international titles and quietly releasing them without any fanfare, let alone decent placement on their algorithm that would make for easy discovery. French thriller Get In marks the latest. Initially released in native France under Furie, or Anger, the update to Get In makes for a lackluster title and an easy target for connections to Jordan Peele’s Get Out. However, they’re two very different beasts. Instead, Get In channels Straw Dogs, by way of French extremity, offering a new, nihilistic angle on the home invasion thriller.
After two months of vacationing on the road in their RV, the Diallo family return home tired and ready to get back to normal. Except, their remote to the gate won’t work, the caretakers they’ve left the house to refuse to answer their phone, and the name on the mailbox has changed. When Paul Diallo (Adama Niane) hops the gate to investigate, the cops arrive and arrest him for trespassing. It turns out that a written agreement between the Diallos and their home’s caretakers, Sabrina Bolso (Marie Bourin) and her husband Eric (Hubert Delattre), has become legally binding, allowing the squatters to remain in the house legally. That forces Paul, his wife Chloe (Stéphane Caillard), and their young son to sort through legal woes while temporarily homeless, wreaking havoc on their personal lives. The frustrations breed resentment and anger, which eventually explodes into shocking savagery no one could predict.
Directed and co-written by Olivier Abbou, with story by co-writer Aurélien Molas, Get In draws clear parallels to Straw Dogs thematically. Like Dustin Hoffman’s David Sumner, Paul is mild-mannered and devoid of machismo. He recoils at the sight of guns, and freezes when confronted by violence- a fight breaks out at the school where he teaches, and he can do nothing but stare from a distance. It creates a tumultuous internal struggle as unspoken aggression develops in nearly every aspect of Paul’s life. His marital insecurities are compounded by his inability to reclaim his family home. Eric’s antagonistic dominance over Paul’s house further threatens his masculinity. Then there’s his new friendship with trailer park landlord Mickey (Paul Hamy), a seedy, checkered past type who proves way too eager to show Paul the ropes of tapping into his long-buried attraction to violence. Mickey tries to not so subtly coax out the predator in Paul; to give in to his baser sexual and primal desires.
As is tradition with any films that feature a classroom setting, Get In’s thesis is spelled out in an early scene where Paul tries to impart a lesson on John Locke’s philosophy on natural rights. This means that the film spends a lengthy amount of time on the philosophical and psychological toil the Diallo’s situation takes on Paul. That also means that Locke’s theories on private property and limited government are applied to a modern world and a pressure cooker scenario to deliver a third act that’s pure anarchy. While the first two-thirds are focused on an unsettling character study, the film culminates in a harrowing climax befitting of the French extremity subgenre. Though for those who prefer a faster-paced, more action dense thriller, the payoff may not push the envelope far enough to balance out the introspective narrative of the first two-thirds.
Get In is a story of territorial violence, but it bides its time. Much rests on Niane’s performance, as a milquetoast character pushed to the brink, transformed by expectations from everyone around him. It’s an arduous task, considering Paul frustrates at every turn. Niane’s nuanced performance goes far in keeping Paul grounded. Caillard offers the perfect complement as the strong-willed counterpart to the meek Paul. Hamy’s Mickey is more textbook villain, an unsavory roughneck that promises trouble from the moment he shows up. He’s less a character and more of a plot device meant to drive home the core themes of nihilistic savagery.
The premise promises a reverse home invasion, in which disturbing squatters have already invaded the Diallo home at the very start. It delivers on that, but not in a way that many would expect. Like Straw Dogs, this is an exploration of a mild-mannered man’s inner turmoil as he’s targeted as prey and forced to defend what’s his. That journey crescendos into an explosive, sadistic finale with permanent, powerful consequences. It’s not an original concept, but the modern application, along with Niane’s performance and Abbou’s direction, makes Get In feel relevant all the same. Even if it begins with an eye-rolling “based on a true story” card. It helps that it has one hell of a satisfying payoff.
