"Lügen" ("Lies") or "Lügen und andere Wahrheiten" ("Lies and other Truths") is the newest movie written and directed by Vanessa Jopp. I don't think she is particularly known, but probably among the five or ten most famous German female movie makers right now. The cast includes some well-known names: Florian David Fitz (big winner at the German Film Awards for "Vincent will Meer" not too long ago), Alina Levshin ("Kriegerin"), Jeanette (several international projects such as "The Reader"). In addition to that, there are Meret Becker and Thomas Heinze, both well known at least to German audiences, playing the lead couple of the movie.
You will not find a character in this film that cannot be described as flawed. Some have minor troubles, some have bigger issues. The one whose actions can maybe be understood, at least to some extent, is Levshin's character, although I had sympathy for Heinze's character occasionally too, especially with how things turn out at the end.
All in all, the movie rarely achieves greatness. It's fairly mediocre. I have seen the film being advertised as a comedy, but I would disagree with that. The occasional hidden humor scene (like at the dentist's) does not make up for the dramatic aspects from the film which are present during all its 100 minutes. There's lots of tragedy: parents faking sickness to get money from their daughter, best friends actually not caring at all about the other, several suicide attempts, alcoholism issues, violence, blackmail... Even the only really light-hearted character from early-on shows he has a dark side of loneliness and lies for pretty much all the film in a coma. Also, I did not really get why she would lie herself next to Hain's character near the end without knowing she was also at the hospital and without showing the audience at any point that these two have a strong connection. I also did not like the previous relationship between Stangenberg's and Heinze's character and the way Becker's character totally overreacted to them. There was not much of a point and the movie could have been at 85-90 minutes and may have worked better with some of the weaker story points.
This is just a minor flaw though compared to the ending, which, in my opinion, was possibly the films biggest weakness. It would have been okay to show that Becker's character did not love her soon-to-be husband (ironically her best friend said earlier that she thought he was a clown, but when she got to know him she realized he was a good man), but the whole wedding leaving scene and everything at the lie detector guy's office felt just so forced and over-the-top, especially Becker ending up as the one being questioned. Thumbs up to Heinze though. His refusing near the end was well-acted. I wish though the actors would have refused to play this scene. There are so many ways, in which this could have ended with better quality. The only good thing I can mention here is that the tone of ending was appropriate. A truly happy ending really would not have fit the whole film. The ending between Fitz and Levshin was enough already.
Finally, I would like to mention another scene, namely the one where Fitz' character tells Hain's character that he is going to leave town for spiritual reasons aiming at more harmony in his life. This scene describes the whole film very nicely. The real motivation here was that he got blackmailed and was scared of facing charges for GBH. All the characters actions were intended to seem harmonic and self-confident towards others, but actually, there is always tension, sadness and discontent lurking under the surface. A decent film to watch for lovers of German cinema, but not a must-see by any means because of its flaws in writing.
You will not find a character in this film that cannot be described as flawed. Some have minor troubles, some have bigger issues. The one whose actions can maybe be understood, at least to some extent, is Levshin's character, although I had sympathy for Heinze's character occasionally too, especially with how things turn out at the end.
All in all, the movie rarely achieves greatness. It's fairly mediocre. I have seen the film being advertised as a comedy, but I would disagree with that. The occasional hidden humor scene (like at the dentist's) does not make up for the dramatic aspects from the film which are present during all its 100 minutes. There's lots of tragedy: parents faking sickness to get money from their daughter, best friends actually not caring at all about the other, several suicide attempts, alcoholism issues, violence, blackmail... Even the only really light-hearted character from early-on shows he has a dark side of loneliness and lies for pretty much all the film in a coma. Also, I did not really get why she would lie herself next to Hain's character near the end without knowing she was also at the hospital and without showing the audience at any point that these two have a strong connection. I also did not like the previous relationship between Stangenberg's and Heinze's character and the way Becker's character totally overreacted to them. There was not much of a point and the movie could have been at 85-90 minutes and may have worked better with some of the weaker story points.
This is just a minor flaw though compared to the ending, which, in my opinion, was possibly the films biggest weakness. It would have been okay to show that Becker's character did not love her soon-to-be husband (ironically her best friend said earlier that she thought he was a clown, but when she got to know him she realized he was a good man), but the whole wedding leaving scene and everything at the lie detector guy's office felt just so forced and over-the-top, especially Becker ending up as the one being questioned. Thumbs up to Heinze though. His refusing near the end was well-acted. I wish though the actors would have refused to play this scene. There are so many ways, in which this could have ended with better quality. The only good thing I can mention here is that the tone of ending was appropriate. A truly happy ending really would not have fit the whole film. The ending between Fitz and Levshin was enough already.
Finally, I would like to mention another scene, namely the one where Fitz' character tells Hain's character that he is going to leave town for spiritual reasons aiming at more harmony in his life. This scene describes the whole film very nicely. The real motivation here was that he got blackmailed and was scared of facing charges for GBH. All the characters actions were intended to seem harmonic and self-confident towards others, but actually, there is always tension, sadness and discontent lurking under the surface. A decent film to watch for lovers of German cinema, but not a must-see by any means because of its flaws in writing.
