Schwarze Insel

Nothing original about the plot. Average story line. Movie was shot really good and decent acting by most of them. You will probably finish off the movie once you start just to see how it ends but in the end there is no sense of satisfaction of a enjoyable movie.

The characters were likeable enough but some of the plot I didn't like and other parts just outright not believable. Just made me mad near the end.

Schwarze Insel (or Black Island for the English title) is a German crime/drama spiced up with a bit of mystery. You keep guessing for a while but it isn't too difficult to figure it out. Once you figure it out it's getting lesser interesting to follow. It feels also a little bit too much as a teenager movie, with a typical bad soundtrack. The acting is most of the time okay but it could have been better, especially in the strangling scenes that didn't look too convincing. In the end it's a watchable movie, just good enough for a one time viewing. I've seen worse, way worse in this genre so I'm not complaining.

A lot of the reviewers are applying US legal views to European characters. The age of consent in much of the world today is considerably lower than it is in the US. Never mind that in the not too distant past, including in the prudish US, it was far lower than it is today. "Oh no, a 17 year old boy had sex..." is just a distraction from the film is overly long, overly boring, and filled with other plot holes. That's the *real* issue here and it has nothing to do with birthdates, real or imagined, of the actors involved in this near train wreck of a film.

The constant time travel forward and back to make an almost non-existent story arc seem more complicated than it really is doesn't add drama, or intrigue. It's just annoying, and makes you feel like you need to keep notes at times. Next up, the sound track, which is often out of some teenage Disney movie, instead of a thriller.

A pretty good German thriller to watch with pretty good performances, story, character development, writing, and directing. Once more, Netflix can do some good movies every now and then. Recommended.