"Drei Zinnen" or "Three Peaks" is a new German/Italian co-production in the German, English and French language from 2017 and the second full feature work by writer and director Jan Zabeil. He recast Alexander Fehling from his first film again to play the central male (grown-up) character in this 1.5-hour film. His female counterpart is played by Bérénice Bejo, who is most known of course for her Oscar-nominated performance in the Best-Picture winning modern silent film classic "The Artist". And finally, the boy is played by Arian Montgomery, who you have most likely not come across in anything else he's been in before. It is a 3-people movie with the focus moving more and more to the two males and their characters' relationships the longer the film goes. Their relationship is the one of a stepdad and the son of the woman he loves. A complicated relationship as the boy really adores his biological father. However, in my opinion, the film is at least as much about how much of a psychopath the boy is. The saw scene early on was very telling to me. And then these questions at the end if he would leave his mother alone, twice in fact, closely connected to this being blackmail as the boy has to decide about the man's life depending on what his response will be. And there were other moments where I thought too man what a sociopath this kid is. If the man is smart, he will leave him and his mother as quickly as he can. Instead he loves them both it seems. The mother is the same kind of unlikable to me. She may look really stunning, but there isn't a single moment when you feel that she loves her man even close to how much she loves her son. We find out she loves his muscles and that she left the father, seemingly a less muscular guy, but a good father, for the new one. And there is this scene when she lies to her man that the boy wants him to read the bedtime story that night, which may have been meant well, but made things only worse. No surprise her kid turned out this rotten.
As for the film itself, the more dramatic moments all felt a bit for the sake of it, under the ice in the freezingly cold water, the injured leg, the falling-down etc. It was really close until the very end if I could recommend the watch here and whether I'd give it a thumbs-up or thumbs-down, but the final scene made clear there is the thumbs-down. I like open endings, but here we have the son run back all of a sudden as if he is guilt-ridden. Should this have been the attempt at a somewhat happy ending as he wants to save the man? Does he realize all of a sudden how cold-hearted he acted? I don't know, but it felt very unrealistic for this transformation to come out of nowhere. I also felt that the kid's spoken language did not always feel authentic. The best example is the three peaks reference in the title where the boy early on makes a connection to father, mother, child and that for example was an attempt at relevance and significance that went very wrong and as this is a key reference for the movie used in the title, it is a big flaw. The two adults' acting, especially Fehling's physical approach made this film worth watching at times. However, it just wasn't enough to make up for the weaknesses the film shows about the subjects of fatherhood, masculinity and survivalism. All in all, given the cast, this was a missed opportunity and could have been a far better work. Even the cinematography and visual side were surprisingly forgettable. Sure I don't expect a nature documentary here, but they gotta do better than this with the location here. Surprised this already scored some decent awards recognition as it just wasn't convincing as a whole. My suggestion is to skip this one unless you are a really big fan of Fehling and/or Bejo. If not, then watch something else instead.
As for the film itself, the more dramatic moments all felt a bit for the sake of it, under the ice in the freezingly cold water, the injured leg, the falling-down etc. It was really close until the very end if I could recommend the watch here and whether I'd give it a thumbs-up or thumbs-down, but the final scene made clear there is the thumbs-down. I like open endings, but here we have the son run back all of a sudden as if he is guilt-ridden. Should this have been the attempt at a somewhat happy ending as he wants to save the man? Does he realize all of a sudden how cold-hearted he acted? I don't know, but it felt very unrealistic for this transformation to come out of nowhere. I also felt that the kid's spoken language did not always feel authentic. The best example is the three peaks reference in the title where the boy early on makes a connection to father, mother, child and that for example was an attempt at relevance and significance that went very wrong and as this is a key reference for the movie used in the title, it is a big flaw. The two adults' acting, especially Fehling's physical approach made this film worth watching at times. However, it just wasn't enough to make up for the weaknesses the film shows about the subjects of fatherhood, masculinity and survivalism. All in all, given the cast, this was a missed opportunity and could have been a far better work. Even the cinematography and visual side were surprisingly forgettable. Sure I don't expect a nature documentary here, but they gotta do better than this with the location here. Surprised this already scored some decent awards recognition as it just wasn't convincing as a whole. My suggestion is to skip this one unless you are a really big fan of Fehling and/or Bejo. If not, then watch something else instead.