Revanche Directed by: Götz Spielmann Cast: Johannes Krisch, Irina Potapenko, Ursula Strauss, Andreas Lust Running Time: 2 hr Rating: Unrated Release Date: June 12, 2009
Plot: Alex (Krisch) works for a sleazy brothel owner. He's in love with Tamara (Potapenko), a Ukrainian prostitute in debt to Alex's boss. In desperation, Alex robs a bank but Tamara dies after being shot by a cop (Lust) who tries to stop Alex. He hides out with his grandfather in the country, where he learns that he's staying right next to the cop who killed Tamara.
Who’s It For? Though it's billed as a thriller, it's definitely a slow one more in line with Cache than The Bourne Identity. So more about morality than chases. For the mature viewer, in every sense.
Expectations: Revanche is up for the Best Foreign Film Oscar. So hoping to be blown away.
SCORECARD (0-10)
Actors:
Johannes Krisch as Alex: For a flabby man, Krisch gets a lot of sex in this movie. In the first scene of the film, he's having sex in a shower (with a see-through curtain) with a really hot chick. Turns out she's a Ukrainian prostitute in the country illegally, so I could understand why he looked good. Then Susanne (Strauss), the cop's wife, makes a play for him too. I will give him this though, he's a passionate dude. Alex doesn't talk much about his feelings. Because his emotional development is the crux of the movie, Krisch has to do some serious acting to make up for it. But it works, I believe him. Score: 8
Irina Potapenko as Tamara: Tamara's a prostitue/sex slave in debt to the owner of her brothel, who presumably arranged to get her to Austria. But hey, it's better than the Ukraine. She's in a relationship with Alex and at the beginning I wondered that this beautiful woman was into this down on his luck guy. But if she doesn't love him, she sure acts like it. She's in a bad situation, but she's tough, and you believe she's going to make it. Until she gets shot. Score: 7
Ursula Strauss as Susanne: She took awhile for me to figure out. Susanne loves her husband but she starts an affair with Alex and he's kind of a bastard to her. I figured that she wanted children, but really, do you want just any dude's kid? I mean, I don't think Alex has the best genes. He's an ex-con after all. But she develops a relationship with him that ends up being the most rewarding in the film. Score: 7
Talking: It's in German and there's not a ton. Characters often say things they don't mean. What's unsaid but intimated is more important. Score: 6
Sights: The whole film seemed a bit grey, as though the color had been leeched out of it. It had the look of a rainy day in Portland. The hue suggests where everything is going (hint: not to happy places). Score: 6
Sounds: Some loud, angry German music at the brothel, but not much else. Mainly diagetic sound. Score: 5
PLOT SPOILERS
Best Scene: Toward the end of the film, Alex confesses to Susanne that he was the man who robbed the bank. When she realizes that her husband killed the woman he loved and that is the reason for his unhappiness and passive aggression, she barely reacts. All she wants are his assurances that he won't tell her husband of her affair. In context, it's important because Alex finally moves beyond the idea of revenge for Tamara's death and makes a real human connection.
Ending: The film ends minutes after the last scene. The real end is Alex's decision not to take revenge, he accepts what happened and that it was not malicious. The film ends at exactly the right place.
Questions: Is it really better to move to another country and be more or less a sex slave than stay in the Ukraine? Is the Ukraine really that bad?
Rewatchability: It's a bit heavy, but certainly worth another go.
OVERALL
The word "revanche" translates to revenge, and that becomes clear halfway through the movie. What makes this more complicated than the typical revenge thriller is that the film isn't about taking revenge so much as the moral implications of revenge. Though the cop, Robert, killed Tamara, does he deserve to be killed in turn? Alex spends the second half of the film battling this question. Though he didn't seek out Robert, fate makes them next door neighbors.
What initially bothers him is the idea of Robert having a perfect life. A beautiful house, loving wife, the chance for children, all the things that Alex was trying to get for himself but lost when Tamara was killed. He also thinks killing Tamara meant nothing to Robert, since she was an accessory to a bank robbery. There are a lot of misunderstandings, Alex constantly sees everyone else as happier than himself and acts out because of it. Spielman wants us to identify with Alex, but sometimes I just wanted to smack him. Like when he tells Tamara that nothing can go wrong during the robbery, he has a great plan. Clearly he's never seen a movie if he doesn't realize that he's inviting disaster with that remark. But that makes his journey more compelling in the end.
Final Score: 7/10