Wolff rating: EXCELLENT
Plot summary: Woman's boyfriend is going to be killed if she can't find 100,000 Deutsch Marks in twenty minutes.
Biased, pithy comments: This is a wholly German production, almost comically so---Mike Meyer's ``Dieter'' could leap out and dance the Schprockets at any point and I wouldn't have been too surprised. I mean, come on, badly-matching European clothes, uninspired interior decorating (geez, those bank offices look tacky), and throbbing techno with listless poetry spoken over it. Wow! Talk about stereotype! I'm just vamping though; it's clear why this won an Audience Award at Sundance---it's a relentless crowd-pleaser with an unstoppable pace broken only by a few interludes where we get to know these characters a little better. It works better than it should, by all rights, and by the end you are more than a little worried. The two leads have great chemistry with the camera and eventually with one another, and some of the visual tricks only add to the Teutonic pleasures. The complaint is that it ultimately doesn't mean too much---I'm not sure I got to know Lola through all of her running, and I'm not sure the meditation on all of our tiny choices each day added up to anything but what it was---a fun little riff on chance. But lots of fun.
Other Notes: Potente also does the listless poetry. I talk all mean about it, but I want the soundtrack.
How many times I have seen it: x1
Starring: Franka Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu, Herbert Knaup, Nina Petri.
Directed by: Tom Tykwer