Princess And The Warrior

Year: 2000

Grade: C+

Country: Germany

Director: Tykwer

Review

this is one of those films that on paper looks like an interesting film, but in film form just doesn’t live up to its potential. the story has a lot of compelling elements, and the pieces seem to fit together fairly well when you look at them in a broad way. however, the film’s filler just wasn’t good enough to support the main ideas of the film. franka potente turns in her usual good performance, but her skill wasn’t matched by her male counterpart. his performance was mostly lifeless and uninspired. the powerful moments with him were more a function of what was happening than the way in which he was doing them. for example, him saving potente’s life under the truck was a powerful moment, but it was because of what was happening and the situation in which it was happening, instead of the actor’s performance. the music felt subdued throughout the film which would have been okay if, in the end, there was a release, but that didn’t happen. because the characters were in many ways bottled up by their past or their emotions it made sense that the music always had a sense of wanting to reach a crescendo, but never quite getting there. by the end of the film the characters finally did have their release, but rather than the soundtrack echoing this, it turned overly ambient and faded away as the camera ascended. overall the film could have used some trimming, reworking of the screenplay and a new male lead. as is true with “run lola run” the film addresses issues of fate, synchronicity and related topics. it’s an interesting film, but not a very entertaining one.