User Reviews

"Kammerflimmern" or "Ventricular Fibrilation" (the German title sounds nicer) is a German movie from 2004 that runs for 100 minutes roughly and was written and directed by Hendrik Hölzemann. Actually, with the exception of a short film later on and an upcoming project, this is Hölzemann's only effort as director, but he (co-)wrote several other film, also like the recent Martina Gedeck film "Gleißendes Glück". But yeah, like I said he has a film upcoming that he directed, so maybe he is up for behind-the-camera work again. Anyway, back to this one here. It features two of Germany's most famous actors, namely Matthias Schweighöfer and Jessica Schwarz playing the main character, Schweighöfer probably even more main than Schwarz here. Other known names include Beglau, Zech, Spengler, Noethen etc. And Florian Lukas is in it too and this film is right after his big success with Goodbye Lenin and again he plays a supporting character who is a friend to the protagonist and with the exception of small screen crime movies, this is the niche he is still in today. Sadly, in this one here, he really plays a pretty poor man's version from his character on GBL only and I have serious doubts about his range.

Back to Schweighöfer: I am not a fan of him at all and I think he is unbearably bad at times in his more recent works. So I was a bit surprised that he is doing a solid job in here, especially early on. But the longer the film goes, the weaker he becomes too. As for Jessica Schwarz, I like her quite a bit usually, but sadly the material she has here offers nothing between crying screaming and bleeding. Her character feels to me as if she has zero depth. Certainly a waste of a good actress. The film itself fits Schweighöfer's description. It starts of pretty nicely with the scene at the Turkish family's home, but the longer it goes, the messier it becomes, especially in the romance relationship aspect. There were many quotes in here where I felt that they weren't authentic at all. They were nothing the characters would say in that particular situation or in any other situation. One sex scene was an extremely blatant example of that. And story-wise, things aren't looking any brighter. The crash with the ambulance car at the very end was just the negative icing on the cake. Certainly not a tasty cake. More like a cake where there first 2 or 3 bites are still delicious, but it does not stay that way and quickly changes for the worse. From a dramatic perspective, the film cannot be taken seriously. For that, it is just lacking too much in the realism department. That's also why my final verdict is a negative one here. the script sinks the movie. Don't watch.