By Nigel Powlson

HOW far would you go to save the one you love?

That's the question posed by Fred Cavaye's new French thriller and the answer is in the title – Anything For Her.

Which means that mild-mannered teacher Julien (Vincent Lindon) is willing to risk his job, his life and his young son in order to rescue his wife Lisa (Diane Kruger) from the prison cell where she's serving life after being convicted of murder on rather circumstantial evidence.

In the process, Julien learns how to infiltrate a drugs den, handle a gun and gain forged documents – not bad for someone whose hardest task in life had been marking exam papers.

It's the kind of daft premise that Hollywood loves – we are soon to see mild-mannered rapid transit worker Denzel Washington taking on terrorist John Travolta in The Taking of Pelham 123. But it's a bit more unusual for French cinema and Anything For Her gets away with a little more easily.

That's in part due to Lindon, who manages to bring a bit of reluctance and everyman luck to his rebirth as a man of action, and also because of Cavaye's attention to detail.

The director gives us a rather meticulous account of every part of Julien's elaborate plan to spring his wife from jail and start a new life in another country. The planning of the operation is actually more entertaining than the rescue attempt itself.

At 96 minutes, Anything For Her also rattles along at a fair pace and has a tautness that seems to beyond most elongated Hollywood thrillers.

Even Kruger doesn't let the side down. The German actress has had rather a chequered Hollywood career, including a vapid portrayal of Helen in the mega-budget epic Troy that earned her the cruel review "the face that launched a thousand burgers".

She's more comfortable here as the wife and mother on the verge of suicide without ever totally convincing us that she deserves such devotion.

But despite it's obvious flaws, Anything For Her is an enjoyable romp that should please anyone who enjoyed that other French thriller hit Tell No-One.