Perhaps at some time Australian director Cate Shortland may like to elaborate on her love/interest of all things German. Her second film Lore, was an intriguing German language, kind of a immediate post WW2 road film, set in Germany, with a significant Australian input into the production. Berlin Syndrome her follow-up film, is again set and largely filmed in Germany, but this time with mainly English dialogue and one of the two leads being an Australian. It tells the story of a young Australian photographer back-packing to Germany, where she meets an attractive young German secondary teacher of English. Waking up after consensually spending the night with him, she finds herself taken hostage by her would-be lover. It's the sort of movie that could have easily slipped into the horror/hostage sub-genre, but in Shortland's assured hands, it instead unveils as an intelligent and emotionally complex thriller.
Teresa Palmer, who previously has been one of those sort of actors, that consistently give decent performances in some pretty ordinary films, is excellent here as the subjugated victim Clare. As the title suggests, during her long onscreen captivity she appears at certain intervals to develop some sort of psychological alliance with her captor Andi, though how genuine this connection is, remains unclear and perhaps surprisingly, not all that closely explored.
What is surprising however is the narrative focus Shortland and screenwriter Shaun Grant are prepared to hand over to the character of Andi. In doing so, viewers end up finding a lot more about perpetrator Andi, rather than damsel in distress Clare. To Shortland's and Grant's credit, he is not painted as some sort of typically warped, lascivious lecher, though clearly still being shown to have issues. He is a capable teacher, who loves his elderly father with whom he spends regular time. We see he is not a complete social isolate, though is undoubtedly hermitic in nature and living arrangements. He is also shown to be mysteriously bitter about his unseen mother, who escaped to the West prior to the destruction of the Berlin Wall. A failing of the film in my opinion, is that despite this highlighting of the Andi character, we are still none the wiser at the story's conclusion, as to why he is motivated to behave in the fashion he does and periodically collect women to involuntarily share his deliberately restricted existence. Nevertheless Max Riemelt contributes a creepily effective Andi.
Also extremely effective and unobtrusively notable is Bryony Marks' highly inventive, selective score, besides Melinda Doring's carefully thought-out production design, which underlines Clare's boxy surroundings as a patchwork landscape of forbidden and permitted spaces.
The conclusion when it arrives appears somewhat rushed as if the creators just weren't quite sure what direction to take. It requires the lucky coincidental intervention of an earlier minor character. Whilst the third act isn't quite up to the standard of earlier parts of the film, Berlin Syndrome still remains as a piece of work worthy of attention. Meanwhile one might be forgiven for wondering whether director Shortland is intent on making a trilogy of German-themed films.
Teresa Palmer, who previously has been one of those sort of actors, that consistently give decent performances in some pretty ordinary films, is excellent here as the subjugated victim Clare. As the title suggests, during her long onscreen captivity she appears at certain intervals to develop some sort of psychological alliance with her captor Andi, though how genuine this connection is, remains unclear and perhaps surprisingly, not all that closely explored.
What is surprising however is the narrative focus Shortland and screenwriter Shaun Grant are prepared to hand over to the character of Andi. In doing so, viewers end up finding a lot more about perpetrator Andi, rather than damsel in distress Clare. To Shortland's and Grant's credit, he is not painted as some sort of typically warped, lascivious lecher, though clearly still being shown to have issues. He is a capable teacher, who loves his elderly father with whom he spends regular time. We see he is not a complete social isolate, though is undoubtedly hermitic in nature and living arrangements. He is also shown to be mysteriously bitter about his unseen mother, who escaped to the West prior to the destruction of the Berlin Wall. A failing of the film in my opinion, is that despite this highlighting of the Andi character, we are still none the wiser at the story's conclusion, as to why he is motivated to behave in the fashion he does and periodically collect women to involuntarily share his deliberately restricted existence. Nevertheless Max Riemelt contributes a creepily effective Andi.
Also extremely effective and unobtrusively notable is Bryony Marks' highly inventive, selective score, besides Melinda Doring's carefully thought-out production design, which underlines Clare's boxy surroundings as a patchwork landscape of forbidden and permitted spaces.
The conclusion when it arrives appears somewhat rushed as if the creators just weren't quite sure what direction to take. It requires the lucky coincidental intervention of an earlier minor character. Whilst the third act isn't quite up to the standard of earlier parts of the film, Berlin Syndrome still remains as a piece of work worthy of attention. Meanwhile one might be forgiven for wondering whether director Shortland is intent on making a trilogy of German-themed films.