Friedrich and Ms. Uhl sink so completely into their discontented characters that you don’t have the sense of observing performances so much as watching lives being lived. Mr. Schmidt accomplishes the difficult task of imbuing a louse with a sly charm.
The low-key realism is so meticulously maintained that "Summer in Berlin" feels somewhat trivial. There is nothing larger here than meets the eye. It is "Sex and the City" on a stringent budget with fewer characters, in which Mr. Big is Mr. Sneaky Loser, and the only coveted shoes are the 120-euro running sneakers Max desperately desires but his mother can't afford.
-- Summer in Berlin Review
Another local paper gave it a mundane review, noting it was not memorable, two stars out of four. It annoys me when reviews toss in such cheap shots. How many movies are truly memorable anyway? It's like when they say that there is no point to the movie, as if most movies really have a point other than to entertain. Such filler is forgivable, since they have to say something to fill up all that review space, but still tends to be selective -- films with the same qualities do not get similar treatment if the critic in some fashion enjoyed that particular movie better.
Anyway, as suggested by the quote (and the awards it received), the movie deserves better. Not that many will see it -- it only is in town here for a short time, and is a foreign language film to boot. But, a film where we feel in some sense we are viewing lives truly lived -- including the elderly charges of the home health aide character -- is nothing to sneeze at. The Sex in the City reference is pretty simplistic too, since the show is not exactly a good representation of working class sorts. Still, the divorced mom character is strikingly like the Cynthia Nixon character, if only in the looks department.
[Nice theatre by the way.]
Meanwhile, I listed to the commentary of the original Parent Trap movie last weekend. The director and star did the honors ... about forty years after they made the film. One of the charms of DVDs ... especially when you borrow them for free from the library ... is to obtain such extras. I didn't realize she was European. The movie itself is pretty mean, isn't it? Twins split at birth, not told of each other, parents not being able to tell which is which, and the usual bitchy girlfriend sort to defeat.
Definitely, one of those films that you have to put certain things out of your mind to enjoy.