"Das letzte Schweigen" or "Das Schweigen" or "The Silence" is a German crime thriller from six years ago. The writer and director is Baran bo Odar and this was his second movie, not counting an early short film he made. I saw in his profile that he was born in Switzerland, but I am not sure about the origin of his name. It sounds a bit Danish to me, so it's fitting that Ulrich Thomsen, one of Denmark's finest actors, plays a major character in here. The film is about two child murders, one that took place almost 25 years ago and one that takes place in the now. Is it the same killer? The fact that we find out very early about what exactly happened in the past implies that it's not, but no further spoilers.
The cast includes a handful really famous names from Germany, such as Klaußner, Saß, Möhring, Blomberg, Michelsen... so it's not much of a surprise that the film got some recognition, in terms of popularity as well as awards, even if it did not get as popular as the filmmaker's most recent work "Who Am I". I personally enjoyed the watch overall. What I liked maybe most about it is that it did not take the easy route at all. Basically all the plot developments in here are not by the books at all and that includes the ending as well as the killer's motivation for his crime. Very well-done and well-written. Sadly, there are also areas when the movie is not particularly well-written. This is mostly about the characters' relationships, such as the stereotypical death of one major character's wife or the relationship between Saß' and Klaußner's character, which was pretty ridiculous, even if it had a touch of "Goodbye Lenin" to it obviously.
As a whole, I recommend the movie. For a German crime thriller, it is fairly good and way better than 90% of "Tatort" episodes. The good certainly outweighs the bad. A lot of it is due to the strong acting by basically everybody involved, even if Saß plays pretty much the same character as usual. It's especially worth seeing because it is a pretty daring film and you do not have to expect anything stereotypically bad to happen during these almost 2 hours. Thumbs up. Give it a go if you like the genre and get a chance to see it. Nicely atmospheric little movie.
The cast includes a handful really famous names from Germany, such as Klaußner, Saß, Möhring, Blomberg, Michelsen... so it's not much of a surprise that the film got some recognition, in terms of popularity as well as awards, even if it did not get as popular as the filmmaker's most recent work "Who Am I". I personally enjoyed the watch overall. What I liked maybe most about it is that it did not take the easy route at all. Basically all the plot developments in here are not by the books at all and that includes the ending as well as the killer's motivation for his crime. Very well-done and well-written. Sadly, there are also areas when the movie is not particularly well-written. This is mostly about the characters' relationships, such as the stereotypical death of one major character's wife or the relationship between Saß' and Klaußner's character, which was pretty ridiculous, even if it had a touch of "Goodbye Lenin" to it obviously.
As a whole, I recommend the movie. For a German crime thriller, it is fairly good and way better than 90% of "Tatort" episodes. The good certainly outweighs the bad. A lot of it is due to the strong acting by basically everybody involved, even if Saß plays pretty much the same character as usual. It's especially worth seeing because it is a pretty daring film and you do not have to expect anything stereotypically bad to happen during these almost 2 hours. Thumbs up. Give it a go if you like the genre and get a chance to see it. Nicely atmospheric little movie.