Cloud 9 (2008)

One of the worst movies I've ever seen

Fresh and Exciting

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

This is definitely NOT a feel-good love story. The very brief moments of happiness, either with her husband or her lover, are few and far between. The woman spends most of her time completely miserable. All three characters, particularly the men, are poorly developed. We don't really get to know any of them. In fact, there seems to be little motivation for the affair. And I must say the nudity is gratuitous, seemingly there just to prove a point. I would have been uncomfortable with that much frontal nudity and sex, even with the most beautiful of actors, and believe me, they are not. Yes, old people do fall in love and do have sex. What's sad to me is that we are still not seeing a real love story, or even a tragic love triangle. The film's reason for existence seems to be just an opportunity to exploit the idea of old person sex.

A beautifully acted film that captures intimate feelings between people without unnecessary noise or clutter. Precise in its execution of scenes, the story takes the viewer through intimate moments between people and how aging can strengthen the passions, rather that diminish them as popular culture would have us believe. Whilst on the outside, the characters are "your average pensioners", on the inside they harbor deep, unfulfilled wells of desire which aging can only enhance. As one character Karl says: "I don't how long I have left" and at 76, he's making the most of it. And why not? We see in detail the attachments and separations unfolding between the three main characters in the excellent acting of the cast.This film gives hope to us all as we age, that we will still be loved and desired, that sex can be in some ways more fulfilling and relationships less angst-ridden. But also that the cost of these things may well be higher as we have to let go of long-term habits and beliefs that have given us security and predictability. And that is the hardest thing to do in the seventh decade of life, an intense dilemma indeed which this film beautifully portrays.

I was disappointed by this movie. The meaning in German Wolke 9 or Cloud nine means that a person is full of happiness through being in love and passion with another person, hence sailing on Cloud 9. I don't argue that this could not happen to a well mature couple, but it was lacking in this movie. From an aesthete point of view it was not necessary to show closes ups of the aged bodies. I remember the movie Cocoon, which had a lot more sense, action and humor, also relating to older couples that enjoy or rediscover love and passion. Even the few spoken dialogs were motionless. I believe that the story had more potential than it showed. Well, just my opinion.

Films about how elderly people conceive love and romance are usually ones with potential. This one, however, isn't. The main problem with this film is the poor character development, making all characters extremely unsympathetic and impossible to sense empathy for as a viewer. Especially Werner, the stereotypical old grump in this show, is extremely selfish and only makes the viewer feel hatred towards him, instead of sympathy. In a final act of selfishness, he takes his own life, taking his unsympatheticness to a whole new level. One of the worst films to come out of Germany recently: you can get a lot more value for your buck at your local movie theater than this.