did gonzales (the street punk who was said to have killed philippe neuville) really have an affair with margot? if not, what was the point of implying that they were having an affair? this wasn't really explained in the film.
shareIt's clear they didn't have an affair. He was just using her as an alibi (an affair was a more convincing alibi to explain why he was supposedly at her place at 11 PM, rather than his original claim that he was there because he was a client of hers). Why did she go along with this? Probably out of guilt, since she knew that he wasn't guilty.
shareI agree with phelpsg1's explanation/opinion.
But how is it that her husband was unaware of her "affair" testimony (in court, presumably)? Was it established somehow that this testimony was given in secret?
That part bugged me from the moment that Alexandre dug it out of the sleazy lawyer -- "How did you not already know this?!", I thought.
Hope someone can clear this up for me, because otherwise I was able to enjoy the movie and glide past the other plot holes that others have exposed.
And don't forget that this would also be an alibi for herself (not that she was under suspicion, but just in case).
(I agree that Alex must have been hitting the books and studying the cadavers pretty hard in Bordeaux to have missed out on all this stuff back at home.)
Gonzalez was pegged, in advance, by the father to be the killer. Given that Gonzalez already had a criminal record, the story would be believable and it wouldn't be as bad as a totally innocent person going to jail. However, his daughter would not have an innocent man sent to prison and when she learned of it, she lied so that he would have an alibi.
Alex was unaware of all of this because he was in Bordeaux at the time for Med school. We know this because it is the reason he knew very little of the car accident.
So after Gonzales has been exonerated by Margot, what happened to the Philip's murder case? Did the police find another suspect? Has it been declared an unsolved murder? Is there any indication in the movie (or in the book) on the status of the murder case during those 8 years?
shareThey didn't have an affair it was clear in the book and the movie Margot was giving him an alibi.
shareSeems like it was just unsolved.
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Yes--I agree that Alex's total lack of knowledge of all of that didn't really fly with me. I also have the same questions as Tom Pach here --what happened with the Neuville murder investigation?
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Neuville's father thought Margot was dead. He knew or strongly suspected she was the killer. That's why he had his henchmen spying on Alex for 8 years--in case she wasn't actually dead. I imagine Margot's father's long history of dirty deeds with Neuville made him quasi-immune to a revenge killing.
I don't think Neuville ever thought Margot was dead. He sent the two henchmen to kill her and retrieve the evidence against his son and given his knowledge of Jacques's corruption and the two henchmen's disappearance he would have been able to put two and two together and figure out that Margot was still alive. That was why he had his goons watch Alex and Jacques for 8 years, in case Margot made contact he could grab her and kill her.
On the surface, Neuville thought Margot was dead, so he couldn't pursue it with the cops, who probably had no other potential suspects and in their mind, just chalked it up to some random 'wrong place, wrong time' murder - or even if they believed Margot was lying for Gonzalez, a jury found him not guilty (I presume that there was an actual trial since Gonzalez had a court appointed attorney) and they couldn't retry him and the police at least believed Margot was dead, so they couldn't pursue her either. With no leads, the police dropped the case and Neuville couldn't push them to go after a presumably dead woman.
Presuming Neuville believed Margot was not dead, he had no idea where she was. That's why he kept tabs on her father and Alex for 8 years, hoping that someday there would be contact one way or the other.
On one hand Neuville is a powerful, corrupt, murdering, politician, who has the Cheif of Police on his payroll. While on the other hand he could also be the stupidest person on the planet.
When he discovered that Alex`s father was going to spill the bean on his son, he had him killed. When Margo dared to do the same, he was prepared to kill her too, so why then would he cut Alex EIGHT YEARS of slack, if he believed he had something to do with his murder????
Away from Margo, he didnt seem that interested in finding anyone else for his sons death.
Did he not ask himself how Margo managed to fake her death, fooling police, Alex and even her own father, if he really believed that that is what she did???
What happened to the guys he sent to kidnap her? They never returned, but were sent the same night she "faked" her death.
"Come on, Doc. We`re not talking about a band-aid or a tube a Ungentine"
I don't think Neuville ever thought Alex had anything to do with Phillipe's murder, since Alex was in med school at the time.
Its possible that Neuville thought the abductors had just left after killing Margot, or had met other bad ends before they contacted Neuville again (which isn't necessarily wrong given the nature of bad guys to associate with other bad guys) until the two bodies were found at the lake and Neuville figured out that those bodies were his henchmen and now he knew something wasn't right. The movie isn't really clear as to when Neuville hired the new goons to hack into Alex's computer. For all we know, that didn't happen until the bodies were found at the lake and Neuville had real reason to suspect Margot wasn't dead.
At that point, he focus was finding Margot and hurting/killing her, and keeping Alex alive was likely the only way to find Margot.
I must have missed this but...how did the elder Neuville, and not the police, suspected Margot killed Philip Neuville ?
"All wanted was a Pepsi. Just one Pepsi. And she won't give it to me!"
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Her father said that she called Neuville to tell him that she had evidence of Philip beating her up. I assumed she either told him she had shot him (and thought the evidence would keep her safe), or the dad figured it out based on what she told him.
Either way, she assumed this made her safe, but her dad (knowing of the history with Alex's father) knew that exactly the opposite was true. She was now a marked woman.
Not just that - he arranged for her husband Alex to be pinned for various crimes to flush her out of hiding so he could kill her.
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