Director: Tom Tykwer
Cast: Franka Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu, Herbert Knaup, Nina Petri
Have I Seen It Before: Never. Everyone is progressively more shocked when they hear that.
Did I Like It: A mild aside before I get into the real meat of the review, I think it might be time to herald the virtues of foreign films. Especially as I slip into the fatigued days of middle age, there’s at least a 25% chance that any film in English will put me to sleep by the time things are done. Subtitles keep me in the game.
I went into this expecting a breathless, small-scale action thriller. And yet, I was so pleased that it was so much more. I’m not entirely sure why Sliding Doors (1998)--the other branching timeline movie of that year—gets all of the name drops in the years since, as that film was to my memory a fairly pat romantic comedy starring someone who never really got the knack of that genre, where this trucks in the same conceit, and manages to be a small-scale action thriller. It’s also what it appears to be on first blush.
That statement may be slightly unfair. This movie does a lot more with its brisk runtime. It views our everyday interaction as the absolute branching point in the lives of those with which we interact. Sometimes to amusing effect, sometimes to horrifying, sometimes both. It’s not just enough to wonder how our own lives are significantly different based on one quirk of fate, its far more humanistic to briefly flash on how our quirks of fate effect total strangers.
It is also unfair as, although people don’t make as many direct references to this film as others of its genre, its influence is everywhere. Don’t believe me? Watch one episode of Alias. You’ll see.