Far-fetched, unbelievable plot

Rating: 6/10 (6 November 2007)

So much about this film just does not ring true, and there are big gaps in the plot so that you come out asking yourself: but why did he/she do that or why did such-and-such happen? The answers may be there but who's got the energy to tease them out? It's the filmmaker's job to keep the plot lines clean and clear. I agree with other comments about the love affair between the Jewish woman and Muntze. It's beyond credibility that a woman who has seen her family gunned down in cold blood by Nazis would fall for one of them. However attractive Sebastian Koch may be! And Muntze's change of heart is hard to take. When he's first introduced to the film someone says 'He's the head of the Gestapo - has had hundreds of people killed' or words to that effect. Yet we never see that side of him - only the gentle, stamp-collecting, protector of the beautiful girl, mourning his dead family. It's an old-fashioned film, in the sense that it seems to be aiming for a thrill a minute and lacks the subtleties of plot and dialogue of recent quality films: European films like The Lives of Others, Downfall, and Hidden; or US films like Goodnight and Good Luck and Michael Clayton. It feels like it could have been made in the 1950s.