They Call That an Accident

A woman's only son is killed through the negligence of his doctor. Her husband, in practice at the same clinic, colludes in the cover-up. They Call That an Accident has interesting credentials: it's the first directorial effort of its star, Nathalie Delon (who also scripted); it was produced by Island, and features music by their artists Steve Winwood and Marianne Faithfull, including her splendidly sour song 'Guilt'; and it's a revenge thriller, a sort of Death Wish with a female protagonist. A clue to the film's main problem is in fact in the title of that Faithfull song: the tightrope between self-destructiveness and revenge proves a difficult one to negotiate generically in a way that leaves the heroine with her - and our - convictions intact. Obsession is on occasion frittered away into mere whimsy, or even modishness, despite some unfaultably bleak locations.