'Hidden' hopes, unanswered questions

Imagine opening your front door one morning to find a VHS tape wrapped in a piece of white paper with a child's drawing on it. Poorly sketched, the picture depicts a child's face covered in blood. You place the tape in your VCR and all you see is two hours worth of footage containing the front of your home. Nothing exciting, nothing unusual, just nothing at all really.\n"Caché" ("Hidden") shows us just how paranoid one can become when unknown surveillance is placed upon them. Georges Laurent (Daniel Auteuil) and his wife Anne ("Chocolat" beauty Juliette Binoche) deal with the aforementioned problem almost daily. Someone is leaving these VHS tapes wrapped in drawings which aren't really all that harmful from the looks of things. Since they aren't harmful, the police couldn't care less. If something actually happens to the Laurent family, then law enforcement will give a damn.\nThe thing about these drawings is they mirror memories Georges had as a child. Dealing with an adopted brother named Majid (Maurice Bénichou, "Amélie"), Georges would make up stories about Majid coughing up blood and other bizarre incidents, which he would then inform his parents about. Upon confrontation in modern times, Majid denies it all, but considering nobody besides Georges and his parents knew of these exchanges, who is spying on him? If Majid really isn't the one "terrorizing" the Laurents, then who is and why?\nTaking cues from Francis Ford Coppola's classic "The Conversation," director Michael Haneke removes the tightrope thrills and places things on a track moving slower than a surveillance camera's automatic motions. I've never seen any of Haneke's other films, but the style he presents with "Caché" is as minimal as possible.\nYes it is slow, but there is a stroke of brilliance that should be recognized. These tapes are absolutely harmless. A bit creepy yes, but nothing out of the ordinary. The paranoia and uneasiness that boils from these eerie events is fascinating. All we can do is sit back and watch either in horror, bewilderment or even possibly amusement at the fact that these people really are just getting worked up over what could really be nothing at all.\nHowever, while sitting back, it is hard to not be aware of the snail's pace at which this story unfolds. And, at the end of it all, we are left with more questions than answers. We're reminded not only of youth's harsh circumstances but also of the gullibility that comes along with it. Then again, maybe it's we, the audience that are the gullible ones.