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IMDbPro

The Trouble with Being Born

  • 20202020
  • 1h 34m
IMDb RATING
5.5/10
1.2K
YOUR RATING
The Trouble with Being Born (2020)
DramaMysterySci-Fi
Elli is an android programmed with memories that mean everything to her owner but nothing to her. The story of a machine and the ghosts we all carry within us.Elli is an android programmed with memories that mean everything to her owner but nothing to her. The story of a machine and the ghosts we all carry within us.Elli is an android programmed with memories that mean everything to her owner but nothing to her. The story of a machine and the ghosts we all carry within us.
IMDb RATING
5.5/10
1.2K
YOUR RATING
    • Sandra Wollner
    • Roderick Warich
    • Sandra Wollner
  • Stars
    • Lena Watson
    • Dominik Warta
    • Ingrid Burkhard
    • Sandra Wollner
    • Roderick Warich
    • Sandra Wollner
  • Stars
    • Lena Watson
    • Dominik Warta
    • Ingrid Burkhard
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 9User reviews
    • 39Critic reviews
  • See production, box office & company info
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards

    Photos7

    The Trouble with Being Born (2020)
    Lena Watson in The Trouble with Being Born (2020)
    Dominik Warta in The Trouble with Being Born (2020)
    Lena Watson in The Trouble with Being Born (2020)
    Lena Watson in The Trouble with Being Born (2020)
    Lena Watson in The Trouble with Being Born (2020)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Lena Watson
    • Elli…
    Dominik Warta
    • Georg
    Ingrid Burkhard
    Ingrid Burkhard
    • Frau Schikowa
    Jana McKinnon
    Jana McKinnon
    • Elli
    Simon Hatzl
    Simon Hatzl
    • Toni
    Susanne Gschwendtner
    • Birgit
    Nikolai Klinkosch
      Hossein Rahmani Manesh
      Ilvy Steinbach
          • Sandra Wollner
          • Roderick Warich
          • Sandra Wollner
        • All cast & crew
        • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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        Storyline

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        Did you know

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        • Trivia
          The Melbourne International Film Festival decided to not screen the film at its 2020 festival, citing concerns raised by two forensic psychologists that it might "[normalise] sexual interest in children" and be "used as a source of arousal for men interested in child abuse material." The decision to remove the film from the festival line-up was denounced by film critics Peter Krausz, Tom Ryan and David Stratton, declaring it was artistic censorship.
        • Connections
          Features The General (1926)
        • Soundtracks
          Live is life
          Written by Opus

          Performed by Opus

        User reviews9

        Review
        Review
        Featured review
        3/10
        Just a huge miss
        I didn't know what to expect going into this. I've heard the stories about the supposed subject matter and all that but i'll watch anything remotely sci fi so there we go. We got a machine? Yes i'll watch that.

        What is this movie about anyway. Nobody knows in short. It feels like 2 separate movies stitched together in a rather incoherent manner. I don't like brooding drawn out movies in expose style and this is just that.. too much pointless scenes in the dark (literally blair witch project b roll forest footage...) that serve no purpose and contribute nothing.

        The first part of the movie appears to be about a man who buys/acquires somehow a machine that looks like his daughter at the age she disappeared. So the machine is there to basically fill that void but it gets a little sexual because said machine is just sex doll made to look like the kid he lost. Right. So that's the part people cry about but there nothing really shown in the movie and there are more suggestive kids shows rated PG if we have to be honest. It therefore is not a love story either.

        Perhaps it is a drama about the relationship between people and machines? Well, cannot be because it totally bombs at showing the whole person vs machine interaction. It tries to use horrible narration to exemplify some struggle between the real and mechanical but I just cannot care to even bother to think of it because it is so badly executed. Star trek did more with data, alita battle angel, which is a movie about fighting did more on this topic... i robot also did a better a job. Video games like detroit become human focused on this subject matter in depth and pulled it off... This here, which is supposed to be a movie about just that sort of thing, does nothing. It fails completely to the point you are wondering what am i watching. It feels like somebody had an idea, did not know what it was but made a movie about it regardless. The cast is dull. The CGI cast is equally dull. Everything is dull. Moody, boring, non engaging, non thought provoking, flat. Just bad. I cannot think of a single memorable scene or event in 90 minutes of run time. It was so nonsensical i was hoping for maybe something stupid to happen just so i have a memory 5 minutes after the credits... but alas, no. Nothing occurs that you can take with you. If i think hard enough, perhaps i will remember that the lead in the first part liked to drink. Congratulations! You have left the viewer with a memory of a man drinking his sorrows away. So unique........

        Some more footage in the dark, random walking through a forest. Time for a reboot into the second part of the story. Now we have a robot, perhaps the same one from the first part (nothing is clear here - did she run away or was it a new unit) is sent to another home to again fill the void of a missing child. This time the robot is turned into a boy. The owner doesn't want it but their relatives insist and so we have this whole moody, lethargic starring at the nothing scenes that constitute of "go away i dont like you" and the machine staring blankly in some communist era german flat scene after scene.

        There is no dialogue to speak of. No feelings, no soundtrack, no nothing.

        This is just bad. If you were hoping for a deep movie about machine vs human run away. If you were hoping for at least something cringe worthy to watch, not it either.

        If you want blandness and confusion, perfect. Step right in and inhale the disappointment.
        helpful•4
        6
        • idonotexist
        • Oct 8, 2022

        Details

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        • Release date
          • July 1, 2021 (Germany)
          • Austria
          • Germany
          • German
        • Also known as
          • Austria
        • Production companies
          • Das kleine Fernsehspiel (ZDF)
          • Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg
          • Panama Film
        • See more company credits at IMDbPro

        Box office

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        See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

        Technical specs

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        • 1 hour 34 minutes
          • Color

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