Soundless

LAUTLOS (Soundless) is yet another film by Director/writer Mennan Yapo (with writing assists form Lars-Olaf Beier) that takes on a story of a hit man on his last job and makes it into a fine psychological thriller. The cinematography, lighting, music and pacing of this strangely dark film provide an excellent background for a superb cast of actors.

Viktor (Joachim Król) is an aging hit man, a perfectionist whose reputation as a genius killer includes the fact that he works so well that he is soundless in his paid executions. We are privy to his mind's working as he focuses on his last hit, a man with a lady in his room Nina (the very beautiful Nadja Uhl) whose life he spares in the hit, an act of emotional response to the beautiful woman but an act that causes his employer to set a mark on him for his failure. Viktor saves Nina from suicide and the two become enchanted with each other. Viktor has found love at the end of his career as a murderer: Nina wants to get to know Viktor better before committing to his advances. Enter the police headed by the brilliant Lang (Christian Berkel) who is determined to capture Viktor by studying his patterns and mind tracings. Viktor and Nina are on the run but with a goal - that they will join at the sea and leave the life of crime. But before this can happen they must go through a literal wall of flames (a touch of Wagner, here). How the cat and mouse chase comes into play and resolves is the satisfying end to this polished little thriller.

Król, Uhl, and Berkel (in addition to a fine supporting cast) make this tense drama intimate and penetrating and Yapo's direction keeps the pace breathless. This is a fine little thriller in German with English subtitles. Grady Harp

This is a very interesting perspective of action movies in other countries.No thoughtless Hollywood action flick here. This one is very well done. No overblown special effects, shootouts, chases. Very very realistic. NO cheesy one-liners or nonsense swearing. This one has normal colors and tones that make it seem real. Excellent acting from the actor who plays Felix. Also, the music adds a soft touch and expands the characteristics and the moods throughout the movie. It takes out the overblown action music and replaces it with a soft beat that adds in the suspense. Excellent movie! Additionally, good movie for anyone who would like to expand their German, like me!Actually understood most of the words without reading subtitles... 8/10

For everybody, who likes the shiny American action film, this truly might be a bit different. What I like especially about this "german action movie" is, that everything has a kind of normal color and sound. Nothing is overdone, overcoloured. What appears as boring compared with action movies with high pace like e.g. Bad Boys is the attempt of making it more realistic and not so shiny. The villain, for example, is not the typical bad guy, shootings don't try to "look or sound good" or the SEK (german S.W.A.T.) appears quietly and nearly invisible - like they should - without any of that heroic "fly-through-the-picture-shooting". The characters are also carefully designed to maintain this realistic approach, although the investigator in charge may be considered a bit weird. The killer, however, is as normal as can be - somebody you could meet on the street. Especially Joachim Krol, who's most famous appearance was in "Der bewegte Mann" (german comedy) surprised me with his totally different character.

All in all a film worth seeing, particularly while the story is different to all the action kind of movie you usually get.

Lautlos is a movie from Tom Tykwer's film company, and you can see his influence as a producer in the sometimes dreamlike, introvert sequences. The film is about a serial killer who finds love and subsequently plans to quit his old underground life. Joachim Król plays the silent hitman very well, he gives a hint of broken softness to the character so that it's easy to like him. The plot is also exciting enough to keep your attention, with the right balance between action and character development. The only big problem about this movie are the dialogues. They are deliberately artificial but in such an exaggerated way that they just spoil the whole thing. Still, with the Król-bonus, it's a 7 out of 10 for me.

The action film, like the crime novel, is a satisfying ritual—with an allegory of good overcoming evil as its centerpiece—for many people. In the USA, this is normally done with famous stars and elaborate stunts, the better to make it "realistic" and "believable." I pass on most of those films because they seem silly to me. I cannot "buy" their pretensions to believability.

"Soundless" makes no pretense of believability. This film sustains a stylized, dreamlike quality throughout. The story is carried by the images. The dialog is banal because it is incidental. (That is in keeping, and does not detract from the film for me.) I found it thoroughly refreshing to spend ninety-four minutes in that dream, at the Philadelphia Film Festival.

This year, I have seen a veritable treasure trove of new German films that took themes seen before, and took them in new directions in keeping with changed times. While a wide theater release for "Soundless" may be too much to hope for, I hope it will be available for people in the USA desiring to see it.