Memorable, crazy movie

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

8th July of 1986.Eleven year old Pia is raped and murdered by Peer (Ulrich Thomsen)while the second man Timo (Wotan Wilke Möhring)watches disgusted and aroused.23 years later another girl goes missing.Her bike and bag is left at the same spot where in 1986 Pia was raped and murdered.Who is behind this 'copy-cat' killing?"The Silence" is a beautifully made and extremely well-acted crime drama about grief and guilt.There is plenty of sorrow and some stellar acting performances.The characters are somber and the cinematography is visually stunning.The plot keeps viewers guessing.Golden fields where young girls were raped and murdered.Peaceful lake where their bodies were found.Green islet of trees among the fields.Omnious silence and hidden secrets/perversions.8 silent screams out of 10.

To start off, I have absolutely no knowledge of German cinema, however, The Silence is a film that made me want to get into German cinema. It is THAT good. The film follows the lives of people connected to a serial killer who rapes and murders young women. After fifteen years without a trace, the killer begins to kill again. As the film progresses, we follow the family of the victim, the police investigating and the killer himself. With every twist and turn this film goes on, it makes for a thoroughly enjoyable and emotionally taxing watch that you're bound to be talking about after the end credits roll. The film stars German actors who, besides a couple bouts of poor subtitle dialog, do an amazing job capturing the authenticity that goes into situations like this. Many films have been touching base on pedophilia and the abduction of children in the past. Such films as In Her Skin and Prisoners come to mind but The Silence is a film that does it in such a way that it gives humanity to all of its characters, even the killer. It's very rare that you're able to actually reason with a character so dark and vile, it truly makes you feel disgusted especially during some of the darker scenes such as a rape scene in the beginning of the film. What this film does beautifully is takes the darkest and most evil event that could happen in someone's life and captures it on screen but it doesn't glorify it. It shows how it truly is, an act of evil done by a despicable man, we don't see an up, close and personal sequence of the rape, we see it through tall grass. Its scenes like this that capture the essence of this film. Its dark, brutal and depressing but it is still a great film nonetheless that keeps you guessing until the very end. I highly recommend it.

The realism draws you in and the pacing keeps you hooked. It was more immersive for me because I did not know any of the actors in the film.This was not a documentary style crime story or a pure police procedural. There was enough of that to satisfy but it was not the focus.Almost every scene is about loss or loneliness, but it is really not about depression but more regrets in life. With each character is it different but it all flows together. SPOILER: Even the "solving" of the crime was a loss because justice as not fully done.There were no stereotypical characters except the bald headed police chief who was always wrong. Having the characters act like real people made it difficult to predict exactly the plot.See this film. It is now on netflix.

Heralded as a German rival for "The Killing", I expected more from this still unsettling subtitled crime drama. Centring on two identical murders some 23 years apart, while we're clearly shown the perpetrator of the first murder, the identity of the second slayer is kept from us until close to the end, but isn't difficult to work out. The film I suspect fancies itself more as a psychological analyses of disturbed individuals rather than a more conventional murder mystery, but fails largely due to inconsistencies in the writing especially the numerous unlikely alliances made by various parties in the narrative. There's an awful lot of pairing which goes on, on all sides of the fence but many seem too unrealistic and unnatural to convince, especially the key one involving the murderer and his abettor but also the disturbed, recently widowed detective and his obviously pregnant partner not to mention the retired but still rebellious detective from te first murder landing up in the bed of the first victim's mother. I especially didn't get the heart-on his-sleeve widower detective who resembles a slightly deranged Daniel Day Lewis and who seemingly is given largesse by his superior to openly question and indeed harangue the latter's orders but who of course cracks the case with an observation I got to before he did himself. The film dwells at length on the grief processes of sundry parties to the extent that you feel it forgets it should primarily be dealing with the emotive subject of child-murder. Also I am fast growing tired of those several aerial-perspective tracker shots plus I felt just too many scenes were unlikely not to mention unbelievable. I want greatly struck by the acting either so that in the end it just came across to me as an over-earnest, over-ambitious but ultimately over-dull police-procedural