Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

"Faraway, So Close!" is a glorious mess of a movie. It's as if writer/director Wim Wenders threw in every idea he discarded from the first iteration of the story, "Wings of Desire." The earlier film was a taut masterpiece, a fantasy and a love story. It was both popular and well received by the critics.This time we have flashbacks to World War II, a heist, homages to Carl Dreyer and Jean Vigo, and a lot of loose ends. This film did well at Cannes but met with a lukewarm critical reception and was not quite as successful at the box office.But despite its daunting two-and-a-half-hour runtime, it's a good, watchable film. Just don't go expecting something quite as marvelous as "Wings of Desire."

I really like "Der Himmel über Berlin", so I was delighted to see Bruno Ganz, Peter Falk, Otto Sander and Solveig Dommartin back for a second film directed by Wim Wenders and written by Wenders and Reitinger again as well. Sadly, everybody from this quartet has a significantly smaller role except (the recently deceased Sander who plays the lead character this time, but is my least favorite of them. Instead, they added rising star Nastassja Kinski (daughter to Klaus), Willem Dafoe (who plays a mysterious character as usual that you cannot summarize with either "good" or "bad"), Mikhail Gorbachev (in small cameo) and German acting legend Heinz Rühmann (already over 90, in his final role).There are some similarities compared to the film. A big part of it is in black and white again and it changes to color after Sander's character becomes human. Sadly, the strength of the first film, the whole poetic approach to life and atmosphere was sacrificed here a bit for stories on homelessness, alcoholism and a major crime-related plot. At least, Peter Falk brought some comedic delight again when he pretends to check a location for an upcoming Columbo movie. For me, a major reason why I rated this film lower than its prequel is because I also prefer Ganz a lot over Sander. Apart from that, the ending was slightly confusing and I felt they could have cut out at least 15-20 minutes and not hurt the film. The German Film Festival, Cannes Palme d'Or and Golden Globe Awards probably disagree as they gave this movie some recognition.All in all, I would say this is still a fairly good movie on its own, even if it hardly never reached the greatness from the first. Fans of Wenders' "Alice in den Städten" could also give this a go.

Every so often, I come upon a film that I can't really describe as either GOOD or BAD--they just seem to transcend words and explanation. What you think of this movie will depend a lot upon whether or not you pay strict attention and try to make sense of the movie or just turn off your brain and watch the beauty of this movie. If you are one of those who want it to make sense, then you will sadly disappointed, as the movie abounds with plot holes and inconsistencies. But, if you just turn off your brain, you will be amply rewarded. I think I fall more in the first group, as at times I got awfully bogged down by the MANY problems with the plot (naming all of them would take pages, believe me). But, I gotta respect the makers of this film to taking risks and trying to produce something unique!One final word. This is the sequel to Wings of Desire and the original is a much more satisfying movie overall. If you only see one, see Wings of Desire.

This film opened my eye to a new time of filmmaking. Growing up in the shadow of Hollywood, as we all have, I had no idea film could be as creative as this. I highly recommend this movie for a great combination of writing, acting, and imagery.