Herald Sun
Stoic, straight-bat scripting and direction can make the film seem more dreary than it really should be.
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Alone in Berlin
A working class German couple take to protesting the Nazis after losing their son at war. Nominated for the Golden Bear at the 2016 Berlin Film Festival.
"Anna (Emma Thompson) and Otto Quangel’s (Brendan Gleeson) son has been killed on the front line. They begin writing postcards as a form of resistance and in a bid to raise awareness: Stop the war machine! Kill Hitler! Putting their lives at risk, they distribute these cards in the entrances of tenement buildings and in stairwells. But the SS and the Gestapo are soon onto them, and even their neighbours pose a threat." (Berlin Film Festival)
2016Rating: M, Mature themes and violence103 minsUK, France, Germany
Drama
- Director:
- Vincent Perez ('The Secret', 'Once Upon an Angel')
- Writer:
- Achim von BorriesBettine von BorriesVincent Perez
- Cast:
- Emma ThompsonDaniel BrühlBrendan GleesonMikael PersbrandtLars RudolphUwe PreussMarko DyrlichKatrin Pollitt
Alone in Berlin / Reviews
The Australian
Though it's visually handsome it tends rather towards the bland... too tasteful and muted.
Full reviewEmpire Magazine
Alone In Berlin, like The Book Thief, can't find the depths, darkness or daring to stand out.
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Chicago Reader
Daniel Brühl easily wrests the movie away from (Thompson and Gleeson) in his B-story scenes...
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Variety
Finally cushions its harshest emotional blows, though Brendan Gleeson's deeply sad, stoic dignity in the lead cuts through some of the padding.
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The New York Times
"Alone in Berlin" proceeds like a train crossing a plain. Without twists or turns, hills or valleys, its dramatic engine chugs reliably forward, delivering its cargo of World War II tragedy with bland efficiency.
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The Guardian
The original story remains fascinating, but it feels like it’s been planed down, and smoothed away, into something more obviously digestible.
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Sydney Morning Herald
It's that juxtaposition - of the hellish against the ordinary - which gives the film its punch.
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Los Angeles Times
A well-acted but creaky and curiously bloodless portrait of life during wartime from the Swiss-born actor turned director Vincent Pérez.
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Hollywood Reporter
Handsomely packaged, the film unfortunately is also too well-behaved and lacking in psychological depth to really set itself apart from countless other WWII dramas theatrically...
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FilmInk
There are just no peaks and troughs, which is remarkable given the tremendously heavy content of the film.
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