Overrated

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Blistering performances.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

I watched this at home on DVD from my public library, my wife skipped it, not her kind of movie. Instead of reading subtitles I selected the English audio version, it is pretty good but you can tell it isn't authentic.As the DVD extras explain, in Germany especially in the early 2000s were a number of murders, some by explosions, of non-Germans simply because they were non-Germans. Neo Nazi attempts at preserving the "purity" of their country. The script here is aligned with those incidents.Diane Kruger, now a US citizen and coming back to Germany after 15 years, is Katja Sekerci. She is married to a man from Turkey, they have a young son. One day as she leaves their shop she sees a woman leave a brand new bike in front outside, tells her she shouldn't leave it unlocked, it might get stolen. But it contained a bomb in the luggage compartment on the rear, when Katja returns she finds a crime scene, both her husband and her son were killed.Kruger is really good in this role, a wife suddenly without her husband, a mother suddenly without her son. A pair are arrested, the trial seems to be going favorably, but a verdict sets them free, the prosecution wasn't able to prove their guilt. So Katja has to figure out a way to establish justice and that takes her to Greece.

No, Diane Kruger did not win the Oscar for this film but She should have. Funny thing happened on the way to the Oscars. They forgot to even nominate Her. Great Year for lead actresses but I think She gave the best performance.

Boring Movie with bad directing and a not very believable story line. I wonder who writes these scripts. The acting was horrifying. In every sentence there was a pause then a dramatic infinite stare another pause and another sentence again. Repeat. Really funny stuff. Everything was amateurish - low budget. The directing was overly sterile not convincing, without any real emotion. No wonder the film grossed a total of not over 400,000$ in the US. I will easily skip this one from all mediums including DVD's.

Fatih Akin doesn't need to prove he knows how to direct or that he is a capable director. But if you need another example here it is. One might say he gets back to his roots or rather his first film somewhat with this. But with the spin that he concentrates on the female perspective. You could also argue that the male might come from that world he created with his first movie (which some may argue is his "Mean Streets" - except he didn't stay in that genre).Diane Kruger is really exceptional in this and very close to real life. So you won't see any over the top and unbelievable stuff happening here. And it all leads to an ending that will either satisfy you or leave quite empty and maybe annoyed. It is tough to please everyone of course, but if you like slow burning drama with thriller elements in it, this is really good. Devastating and painful, but good ...