If you've ever traveled to another country or locale and met an expatriate,
you may wonder what led them to uproot themselves, leave friends and family, and move to a foreign culture.
Did they do it for love? Were they refugees? Or maybe fugitives? Perhaps it was for their career. The answers may be intriguing. But director Barbet Schroeder fails to capitalize on any intrigue.
Marthe Keller's character left Germany because of a love she had lost. Max Riemelt's Jo Gellert left Germany for the freer, laid back world of Ibiza's trance and techno scene. Yet, director Schroeder does not engineer powerful scenes where lost love or the excitement of the Euro trance scene really hits us.
Only at the very end when Ganz's grandfather reveals the secret of his wartime youth and Kirchof and Keller exchange accusations and the young Riemelt declares his attraction to the older Martha, do we see passions that were hidden now revealed.
But by then, it's too late, the irrelevent scenes with the DJ manager and the real estate agents have dulled our interest and emotional connection to the main characters.
Riemelt, Ganz, Kirchof and Keller are all capable actors but the scenes could have been better edited and directed.
Did they do it for love? Were they refugees? Or maybe fugitives? Perhaps it was for their career. The answers may be intriguing. But director Barbet Schroeder fails to capitalize on any intrigue.
Marthe Keller's character left Germany because of a love she had lost. Max Riemelt's Jo Gellert left Germany for the freer, laid back world of Ibiza's trance and techno scene. Yet, director Schroeder does not engineer powerful scenes where lost love or the excitement of the Euro trance scene really hits us.
Only at the very end when Ganz's grandfather reveals the secret of his wartime youth and Kirchof and Keller exchange accusations and the young Riemelt declares his attraction to the older Martha, do we see passions that were hidden now revealed.
But by then, it's too late, the irrelevent scenes with the DJ manager and the real estate agents have dulled our interest and emotional connection to the main characters.
Riemelt, Ganz, Kirchof and Keller are all capable actors but the scenes could have been better edited and directed.