Das perfekte Geheimnis

I am not a fan of German comedies at all, having suffered through numerous Til Schweiger movies amongst others. That's why I was totally surprised by "Das perfekte Geheimnis". It is a very dense movie experience, similar to theater. If you have seen "Carnage" you know what I mean. Almost all of the plot takes place in the living room of one couple. The actors are brilliant, the plot is very clever (although taken from the French/Italian origignal title). And the movie has an air of quality that almost all other German comedies so hurtingly lack. As for the criticism of homophoby and misogyny, I was surprised when reading about it. Yes, there are characters using careless language about their gay friend. But those are immediately corrected by other, more sensitive friends. Also, the topic of child care by either men or women is discussed. But I couldn't see any specific trend towards misogyny. The spite is distributed evenly between men and women, and quite funniliy I might add. Overall, I find it hard, if not impossible to burden a comedy with the duty to carry a perfect picture of a perfect society. Go see it!

A remake of an Italian original, excellently written, full of funny and truly unexpected surprises. Very well played by most of the cast. Didn't feel like 144 minutes at all.

Misogynist. Homophobic. And not funny at all! Waste of time!

This movie is impressive, but not in the way that (the presumably paid) positive reviews put it. It is the most forced drama I ever witnessed on screen, with laughably stupid dialogue, a "twist" that you can see a mile ahead and banal moral lesson at the end. The whole script is basically one tired cliché after another, taken straight out of a telenovela, and induces lethal levels of cringe from start to end. I sincerely don't understand how anyone can manage suspension of disbelief, as the premise is unrealistic, especially more so as the story progresses.

Of course, to satisfy the Current Thing, the "good guy" turns out to be someone other than what he appears to be, and cheap shots are fired at the "bigots", so that the intellectually lazy can pat themselves on the shoulder. This stands in contrast to the cynical and unlikeable way the "friends" interact with each other for the whole evening. There is overt ridicule, backstabbing, envy and just plain aggression that in the real world would turn friends to enemies in a second, but apparently not in this parallel universe of make-belief scriptwriting.

The camera work was okay, the acting mixed with some good and bad outliers, but there is no way to save the viewer from an overdose of Fremdscham. Take this as a warning and spend your time in some superior way, eg getting drunk at the gas station with cheap Lambrusco.

To be honest I mostly don't like the movies of my country. I'm always thinking why they don't make movies on a quality like the french. So I was a little bit upset as my girlfriend wanted to see this one. But this movie is really good. The story and acting is in a really good balance. It goes deep but not too deep. It is dramatic but with the right amount of releasing laughter. And without an to dramatic end. Although we had a fun time after the movie talking about real intimate stories with our friends. I really enjoyed it and I really hope other german movie maker watched and learned about what is possible even in germany.