"Schwerkraft" or "Gravity" is a German 100-minute movie from 7 years ago. It was written and directed by Maximilian Erlenwein and after seeing this, I am not scared to say he must be among Germany's finest script writers these days. It is a bit of a shame he only makes a new film every 5 years apparently. This one here is also the film that turned me into a huge Gavian Hinrichs fan. His German Film award nomination was absolutely deserved and I even would have liked him winning, even if I am a huge Klaußner fan too. He was absolutely mesmerizing in here. His main character is a man working at a bank and there he is in charge of giving credits to people who need them (or refuse to do so). One day a man comes into the bank, sits down next to our "hero", counts down and suddenly shoots himself in the head. This moment changes everything in Frederick's life. He questions everything he did so far in his life and with the help of his friend(?) Vince dives deeper and deeper into the world of crime.
But this is not only about the negative aspects of these criminal activities. His new approach to life also gives him the courage to finally make a move on the woman of his dreams and before that he was stalking her via phone only, which shows us basically that he was a man with problems before already, but also that he belonged to the rotten core of the finance sector. He makes a lot more sense in terms of his actions and views after the suicide happening right before his eyes. Lets take his boss as an example: He likes to be boastful about the young woman he is screwing on vacation. He likes to mark the strong man on many occasions and talk about the suicide not as something tragic, but something entertaining during a dinner with many people. Or let us take a look at his colleague, who is smart enough to find out about the main characters robberies and offers him to go on a date with her instead of talking to the police. Blackmail of the worst kind. She was an interesting character anyway. Her scenes with the main character had great entertainment value. And she was definitely a sociopath as well. She seemed really intelligent and had the plan in advance that she will ask him on a date if he does not deny her charges. So she obviously has a big ego and won't allow him to hurt it, so the ending was kind of predictable.
The comedy (very very dark) is also one of the greatest strengths of this film. There is some priceless hilarity about the scene when he tells her if she causes trouble to him, he will beat her up. Or the scene when they stand in the apartment of the security company's boss with their hilarious costumes and mustaches and then act as if they were cops. And there is a handful more scenes that will certainly entertain you very well. And yet, at the same time, Erlenwein never lost the focus on making this a dramatically relevant film about a young man's 100% character transformation. I really liked the final meeting scene at the office. Everything he says is so 100% true and it puts a major question mark behind the political correctness and false and hypocritical behavior patterns in the business world, but our society in general too. Wonderfully done I must say.
Dies this film have a happy ending? At least the man and his girl were smiling at the end, even if he gets caught. This is not a film for very young audiences. We see man who just killed himself with a bullet to the head. we see a tasered being used and there are more sequences of violence in here. But I think they were necessary and fit nicely in the tone of the whole story. Oh yeah, there is also a scene in which a man beats up Nazis with a baseball bat. That one was completely hilarious too, even if it was certainly not intended as comedy really, or at least not mostly. As a whole, this was such a refreshing watch. I have to dig really deep to find something that did not do much for me, maybe Vogel's character's girlfriend or so. But it's also nothing negative, she was just there. Vogel himself did pretty well as the co-lead here and shows once again that he can really shine with the right character. But the heart and soul here is certainly Hinrichs. I find it a bit sad to see his character did not take off really, for example on an international level as I believe he is easily among Germany's finest actors from his age group right now, if not the best and also does not need to hide behind the likes of Daniel Brühl or August Diehl, who are both more famous than he is. "Schwerkraft" is an outstanding achievement and exactly what you should be aiming for if you are interested in the new wave of German cinema. Highly, highly recommended. This one was closer to a perfect rating than to a ***/*****.
But this is not only about the negative aspects of these criminal activities. His new approach to life also gives him the courage to finally make a move on the woman of his dreams and before that he was stalking her via phone only, which shows us basically that he was a man with problems before already, but also that he belonged to the rotten core of the finance sector. He makes a lot more sense in terms of his actions and views after the suicide happening right before his eyes. Lets take his boss as an example: He likes to be boastful about the young woman he is screwing on vacation. He likes to mark the strong man on many occasions and talk about the suicide not as something tragic, but something entertaining during a dinner with many people. Or let us take a look at his colleague, who is smart enough to find out about the main characters robberies and offers him to go on a date with her instead of talking to the police. Blackmail of the worst kind. She was an interesting character anyway. Her scenes with the main character had great entertainment value. And she was definitely a sociopath as well. She seemed really intelligent and had the plan in advance that she will ask him on a date if he does not deny her charges. So she obviously has a big ego and won't allow him to hurt it, so the ending was kind of predictable.
The comedy (very very dark) is also one of the greatest strengths of this film. There is some priceless hilarity about the scene when he tells her if she causes trouble to him, he will beat her up. Or the scene when they stand in the apartment of the security company's boss with their hilarious costumes and mustaches and then act as if they were cops. And there is a handful more scenes that will certainly entertain you very well. And yet, at the same time, Erlenwein never lost the focus on making this a dramatically relevant film about a young man's 100% character transformation. I really liked the final meeting scene at the office. Everything he says is so 100% true and it puts a major question mark behind the political correctness and false and hypocritical behavior patterns in the business world, but our society in general too. Wonderfully done I must say.
Dies this film have a happy ending? At least the man and his girl were smiling at the end, even if he gets caught. This is not a film for very young audiences. We see man who just killed himself with a bullet to the head. we see a tasered being used and there are more sequences of violence in here. But I think they were necessary and fit nicely in the tone of the whole story. Oh yeah, there is also a scene in which a man beats up Nazis with a baseball bat. That one was completely hilarious too, even if it was certainly not intended as comedy really, or at least not mostly. As a whole, this was such a refreshing watch. I have to dig really deep to find something that did not do much for me, maybe Vogel's character's girlfriend or so. But it's also nothing negative, she was just there. Vogel himself did pretty well as the co-lead here and shows once again that he can really shine with the right character. But the heart and soul here is certainly Hinrichs. I find it a bit sad to see his character did not take off really, for example on an international level as I believe he is easily among Germany's finest actors from his age group right now, if not the best and also does not need to hide behind the likes of Daniel Brühl or August Diehl, who are both more famous than he is. "Schwerkraft" is an outstanding achievement and exactly what you should be aiming for if you are interested in the new wave of German cinema. Highly, highly recommended. This one was closer to a perfect rating than to a ***/*****.
