TdSmth5 Clare is an Australian tourist just arriving in Berlin. She's quiet, passive, dull, but smiles a lot. Her first night she drinks on the roof top of her hostel with some people. She's mainly there to take photographs of DDR architecture/life. Next day she meets a guy and they get along well. He shows her around seems to be attracted to her but is reluctant to take things further. On the second day they meet he's not reluctant anymore. He takes her to his place. Next day she wakes up to discover she can't get out. The guy returns and claims to have left the key somewhere. Next day same thing. She's looked up again. She tries to make a call but her SIM card is missing from her phone. He doesn't have much to say to his captive rather pretends she's his girlfriend and this is business as usual.Clare in her passivity doesn't really make any serious attempts at escape or attack. The apartment they're in is in some empty complex. The window are reinforced so she can't do much but break the first glass layer. Even though the apartment is fully furnished there isn't much she can use in terms of tools or weapons. Days and days go by. He's a gym teacher at a school, one student gets interested in him and visits the place, but even then Clare obediently stays quiet and put. His dad is a professor and dies at some point. We don't even know how much time goes by in the movie. Clare goes between weirdly adapting to her captive girlfriend status to occasionally going on the offensive. He brings her the dad's dog and after she gets attached to it he gets rid of it. He takes her out in the Winter but again she only makes a half-baked attempt at getting out of this situation. After nears two hours of this we learn whether Clare can escape or not.Berlin Syndrome is one slow, boring, uninteresting, long, and pointless movie. As is standard of Hollywood movies and "artsy" movies as well these days, little is said. And of course, as little happens, all you're left to do is watch this thing unfold in slow-motion. That this movie is based on a book doesn't make it any better. Thy try to make something about books and art. But it doesn't amount to much. We learn little about this guy, other than he can't stand his mother, so maybe something went on there. The lovely Teresa Palmer for some reason is made to look much less lovely without eyebrows. So there's not even much to see in that regard, although there is a bit of nudity which earns this movie 2 stars. Otherwise there nothing to see here. Had they trimmed this to 1 hour and 20 minutes, made Teresa to look good, added some more characters, they could have had a decent mediocre movie.

wbeezley A good psychological thriller for an overused story-line. the "abducted" plot has been around for decades, and will continue to do so. however the 'Stockholm syndrome' aspect of this film provides a breath of fresh air and ensures it stands out from the crowd. 6 stars

pepe stealth Where do I begin, a bland story with no character development and a really really slow incredibly slow movie. How do people even get a budget for this. o realism whatsoever, stupid protagonist and an overall disaster of a movie. Cinematography was OK, but too pretentious for this kind of movie. A one star just because I couldn't leave a zero start rating. One of the worse movies I have ever wasted my time on. almost 2 hours and the best parts are in the beginning and 10 minutes before it all ends. Not recommended. what an utter shitfest of a movie

rabbitmoon This is one of those films where someone said "hey, what if..." and presented a very basic plot, then rushed out a draft script. Rather than redrafting and reflecting on how to make the story interesting and relevant in some way, they just pad it out to make it a feature length. As it is, what could have been a detailed, fascinating film ends up being empty and boring. Where the story promises most isn't so much the escapist suspense side of things but the situation as a metaphor for relationships. Issues of control, dominance, repression of freedom, gender stereotyping, c0-dependency. Some of these ideas are hinted at but nowhere near developed, like the writer just didn't have the substance, depth or experience to know what they were doing or saying. There's one scene where the captor is shown to be a germaphobe, which is incongruent with many other scenes in the film (he basically never shows this OCD trait again). As a suspense film it has the occasional moment, but is woefully under-written. It simply could have been a LOT better, especially given the two hour run time.