First, let me say this film used flashbacks in such an astute way. I was very impressed with how the videographers capture the emotion and how the timelines were seamlessly portrayed. My final thoughts as the film ended were with the hearts of people everywhere who have a missing loved one. I don't know if this film is the kind of thing such a person should see but, no doubt, they would be drawn by it. There is always that hope and that heavy, heavy question of what happened. I think if I were in that situation, I would find the end of this series especially satisfying. The series, overall, is very engaging and provocative, although it does almost seem to stall in E5 but suddenly takes off like a horse out of the gate. I did use the English dubbing option, and the voice actors were not the best but definitely not the worst. The perp was very unbelievable, if you know anything about organized v disorganized criminals. He is very disheveled and overweight, not the profile of someone as highly organized as someone would expect for such a well-thought out and continuous crime. But since his own company was the security detail on the closed army base, it was easy for him to hold Jasmin and the kids there. Although, to be perfectly honest, as soon as they found the boy on that base I knew it had to be someone involved in the security. There's no other way they could have pulled it off. So of course, the series offers one of the guards as a potential suspect. One of the big take-aways as the series passes the middle stages is that Hannah is much more brainwashed than anyone could have understood. We see this rather sweet looking child who has been through so much and we are given clues. But we have no real understanding of the conditioning she's been subjected to and who's side she's on! Some people seemed to feel their were plot holes in how the police acted or how allegedly dumb the characters were but I think our actually reflected the mistakes that better reflect reality than thepristine crine shows that are so perfectly divided by good v bad. For me, everything became clear eventually -- well, almost everything. I thought the ending was great because here we think Jasmine has actually been so brainwashed she's going to return with papa, but she tricks papa into thinking she plans to use a knife on him so she can make him feel at ease once he takes it away from her. I really felt ecstatic to realize she was taking back her life. There are some things I felt didn't make sense but maybe I'll watch again and see if they weave together better. According to one review, the book ending is much different but I liked this one better. On a final note: Out of a relatively small number of reviews THREE made a comment about how wonderful German films are. This is not a German film; it is produced by American-based Netflix via their own German production company. Yes, the original story was a novel written by a German, but the series doesn't follow the book exactly. And to be honest, the story is not that unique. But it is a great psychological series.
Review of Dear Child
