Touches You

Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

This is one of those German films you don't think exist. It's very well cast, starring two of Germany's most prolific stage-actresses, Thalbach and Harfouch and featuring a plot that doesn't appear to go with a nation that produces either cute comedies or brainy message movies, and pretty much nothing in-between. This is, if it can be called a comedy, the dark kind, featuring murder, jail, betrayal and blackmail as some of the more unlikely ingredients. "Gefährliche Freundin" (which translates something like "Dangerous Friend") is a film that changes it's direction, maybe even it's genre, more than once. "Surprising" is probably the most appropriate word. Surprising, unexpected, and very well and subtly acted. Katharina Thalbach is quite a character to begin with, and her sure hand for comedy adds surprising weight to the tragedy of her character's plight.She plays Hanna, a woman in the shadow of her glitzier girlfriend (the one who gets all the guys), played by the extravagant Corinna Harfouch. When a boozed up night out with two truckers ends with one body and one knife to account for, the story's only just beginning.Not your average TV-movie-of-the-week. Highly recommended.