This is a 90-minute television thriller from under half a year ago. It already starts as pretentious with the way the actors are introduced as you'd expect from a Liefers movie with the way the characters are introduced. Liefers is the same as always. A character who is intended to be funny, but I didn't think he once was. Unreal that he still gets cast in movies with some comedy. And even in non-comedy films like this one, they need to give him some allegedly hilarious lines. Apart from that, he is also the same as always: an intelligent, arrogant womanizer character with some moral values. The reason that this film is better than most of his other works is really not because of him. It's mostly Henry Hübchen who is just a far more gifted actor than Liefers and brings a truly interesting character to life, even if we don't know till almost the end who he really is. Is he the guy they are looking for or isn't he? The cast is fairly known. Apart from the two mentioned already, there is also Alina Levshin and Gudrun Landgrebe in here. And some more talented actors. The film's director is fairly experienced and he knew how too involve the audience with this film, so they will wonder too who is who and what happened to the central characters.
The script is okay at times, but takes itself more seriously than it should and is sometimes pretty bad too, for example when Liefers' character's colleague cannot join him on the journey because she breaks a leg early on. Man that was a prime example of bad writing, also how they tried so hard to make this scene (and character) funny. Also, Levshin's character is written really underwhelmingly. It was always obvious there is more to her, but in the end she felt nothing but an affair for Liefers' character. The writer really needs a lesson in how to writer female characters convincingly. And sadly, it still seems they cannot yet make a Jan Josef Liefers movie without bringing in any German history issues only because of his real history and role during the Fall of the Berlin Wall for example. Another example of bad writing is the way "the red Doro" was introduced when they have a new character, but are completely clueless on how bringing her into the story. How about a bad nickname? Like from a really cringeworthy lifetime movie. And at the end, unfortunately, they also weren't brave enough to kill Hübchen's character because he wasn't such a bad guy like his henchman. This is a decent movie about (a harmless form of) identity theft. The acting is solid, but there are weaknesses in other areas. Still, all in all, I would say it is worth a watch.
The script is okay at times, but takes itself more seriously than it should and is sometimes pretty bad too, for example when Liefers' character's colleague cannot join him on the journey because she breaks a leg early on. Man that was a prime example of bad writing, also how they tried so hard to make this scene (and character) funny. Also, Levshin's character is written really underwhelmingly. It was always obvious there is more to her, but in the end she felt nothing but an affair for Liefers' character. The writer really needs a lesson in how to writer female characters convincingly. And sadly, it still seems they cannot yet make a Jan Josef Liefers movie without bringing in any German history issues only because of his real history and role during the Fall of the Berlin Wall for example. Another example of bad writing is the way "the red Doro" was introduced when they have a new character, but are completely clueless on how bringing her into the story. How about a bad nickname? Like from a really cringeworthy lifetime movie. And at the end, unfortunately, they also weren't brave enough to kill Hübchen's character because he wasn't such a bad guy like his henchman. This is a decent movie about (a harmless form of) identity theft. The acting is solid, but there are weaknesses in other areas. Still, all in all, I would say it is worth a watch.
