"Kongo" is a German television movie from 6 years ago that runs for 90 minutes and was directed by Peter Keglevic and written by Alexander Adolph. Both are fairly successful filmmakers here in German in terms of both quality and quantity, but they have not really worked on any projects that have become really successful or famous abroad as well. Their film here is about the death of a German soldier and an investigator who has to go up against the military who does not want people to have a deeper, more insightful look at what exactly went wrong during their mission in Congo. I think the very basic story here is a good one and I am positive this could have been turned into a quality movie if they would have kept this at being an investigative crime drama story. But they did not and this really cost the movie. Plot twists like the final (intendedly dramatic) scenes deep in the jungle, the investigator being in serious danger herself all of a sudden, torture plots, the investigator being used as bait and many more moments that were clearly included for dramatic purpose, but made the whole 1.5 hours look fairly unrealistic were the reason, why in the end this was not a convincing viewing experience. I also believe Maria Simon did not show her best here. This character could have been a lot more, but she (and maybe also the writing) reduced it to being either 100% sterile, professional and inapproachable and or being over-the-top dramatic screaming. She is nowhere near the level of Jessica Chastain in "Zero Dark Thirty" for example. Or Emily Blunt in "Sicario". To end the review on a more positive note, I felt that the ending (also similar to "Sicario") was nicely chosen with her finally giving up the fight for truth because of all the resistance, psychological and physical, she was facing. But the way we were lead to this ending was not particularly successful or memorable at all. Cheap thrills everywhere. The bad outweighs the good and I do not recommend "Kongo". Thumbs down.
Review of Kongo
