Gun-shy (2003)

Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

Am I Missing Something?

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

very nice thoughtful scenes and love-story of two foreigners. The inspector "Christoph Waltz" had a roll which remembers to Colombo. And the trist scenes when bringing the "food" to the skuril people make enough impressions without loud action. The action and content follows in the construct and fantasy of the spectator. The actors play their longing-full scenes authentic. I've seen it at night, tired, before going to bed on German TV some week ago. The best situation to watch it. It is no action film. The problem: I fell asleep at the last maximum 20 seconds of the film. I just heard but didn't see it the last seconds. If someone has seen it, please eMail me, what happened to whom at the end. And if it was a happy end or not?

GUN-SHY (Dito Tsintsadze - Germany 2003).I've seen this surreal mixture of comedy and drama twice now, once at the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2004 and recently on television and liked it even better the second time I saw it.Lukas (Fabian Hinrichs) is a quiet loner who refused to join the army because of his pacifist beliefs, and is employed in the Civil Service instead, delivering meals to the elderly in some anonymous former East-German town (the film was shot in Halle). One day he encounters the mysterious Isabella in a local tram, where she leaves him a note saying "Help me!". After this encounter they develop a platonic and somewhat awkward relationship, making Lukas feel even more estranged than before. Lukas spends many of his nights rowing at the local river and one night he kills a man by accident and decides not to report it. But soon a local police officer/detective questions him because he was the only person present at the river when the body was found. The film is not just a dark comedy and has some strong and violent scenes in it, but the tone remains light. I think the murder mystery is one of those crucial plot elements that keeps the story going. The police inspector Beckmann (great role by Rudolf W. Marnitz) - a very "German Krimi" kind of name - bares some resemblance to Peter Falk in Columbo. He is a bit shabby, he already knows all the angles from day one, is unmarried and always has a cold. I just loved this odd little film, not because of the great story or ingenious plotting, but for all the colourfully sketched characters with some truly wonderful vignettes. There is a very old one-eyed former WW II sniper, to whom Lukas delivers his meals, and a Turkish arms dealer who keeps on telling Lukas how he learned German through citing the works of Goethe! Could be corny, but it works wonderfully, thanks to a great cast and Georgian-German director Dito Tsintsadse. A cast of unknowns, especially Lavinia Wilson, really carry this home. I found this a touch weird but nevertheless a very pleasant experience on both viewings.Camera Obscura --- 9/10

Just good enough to keep me going late at night in a German hotel room. Best seen like that. Titillating and quirky, no more no less. But enough so for me to remember the title and hunt it down (...). The scene with the neighbor who's obsessed with North Korea is worth the price of admission (in my case, free, but who's counting?). The girl is sick, the guy's a dreaming loser. The writer who mentioned Hartley and Chabrol should add Rohmer to the list of influences (it's like a slasher Chloe In The Afternoon). I have to write more, but there's really nothing much else to say. Arte is a good channel for travelers who don't want to go completely brain-dead in front of the TV.

This is a lightweight movie, which doesn´t take itself too serious. I saw it at the Guadalajara festival "muestra", where it was well received.As a more serious intention, it gives a portrait of an insecure and inexperienced young man, who works as a "Zivi" in the social service, delivering food too senior citizens. He meets a girl he can't really catch up with. Simple-minded as he is, he feels he has to protect her, so in the end we see a gun go off.From the point of view of filmmaking, a problem is that the lead character is quite shallow, so the movie does not work very well as a psychological study. Neither could the actor convince me totally of his dark sides as a nice boy loosing contact with reality.On the other hand, the film depicts quite well some scenes of everyday life in Germany, and it deals with a fine sense of humour intoducing some very funny contemporanean citizens, so that in the end you might like it.