Luddify You do have to suspend a bit of disbelief to get there on the haunting journey, but the movie's final scene will stay with you forever. Amazing performances by the two leads and assured, understated directing that only intensifies the climax.Absolutely not to be missed, even (or particularly) if you think you've seen every possible treatment of the toll of the Holocaust on individual lives.

[email protected] For those commenters who deem "The Phoenix" unbelievable, with all due respect, you don't have a clue about the depth of trauma and denial in post-war Germany. I encourage you to read Farran Smith Nehme's discussion of the film, "Conversations with Christian Petzold's 'Phoenix," found on the rogerebert.com website. It's an excellent analysis of the film's background and milieu. Nehme also writes eloquently about the problem of suspension of disbelief when it comes to damaged characters living in extraordinary times; he alludes, for example, to Hitchcock's dismissal of the mindset of "the plausibles"--those literal-minded reviewers who often took exception to the logic or believability of his characters' choices. The great majority of critics, however, are smarter than that; for what makes the film absolutely riveting--and why it's received so much critical praise--is how the two main characters, due to their extraordinary historical moment, and the terrible acts they've done or been subjected to, close their eyes to things that seem perfectly obvious, yet also believe things that have no basis in reality. And the ending is unforgettable.

Martin Bradley "Phoenix" is the title of Christian Petzold's film and the phoenix who rises from the ashes is Nelly, a concentration camp survivor whose face has been so badly disfigured that it requires reconstruction. When it is reconstructed it is very much in the form of the original and yet her husband still doesn't recognize her. However, he sees a sufficient resemblance to get her to play the part of herself, his wife returned, as it were, from the dead simply to get his hands on her inheritance.Set immediately after the end of the Second World War Petzold's film works best as a thriller in the Hitchcock mold, (think "Vertigo"), rather than as a serious study of post-war German guilt. There are really only three main characters; Nelly, her husband, (Phoenix is also the name of the club where he works), and her friend who has brought her back to something resembling civilization. On a realistic level it's a little hard to swallow though the denouement is very nicely arrived at and Nina Hoss is excellent as Nelly. It's certainly worth seeing but I don't think it's quite the 'serious' picture critics have made it out to be.

manders_steve Set in post WW2 Germany, we have Nelly (Nina Hoss), a Polish Jewish nightclub singer who survives the concentration camps, a facial bullet wound, and reconstructive surgery. She manages to return to her family, where her husband Johnny (Ronald Zehrfeld) fails to recognise her. She plays a duplicitous game of intrigue and investigation, trying to determine if her husband had betrayed her to the Nazis. He plays similarly deceptive games, aiming to use the found Nelly as a substitute for his believed-to-be lost wife, to claim reparation for substantial assets stolen by the Nazis. Staged reunions, revelation of a possible last minute divorce – and then it ends. I thought it might have launched into a court based battle over identity, with a last minute plot twist of whether the divorce was valid, or even existed at all, making for a nail biter about whether the husband would share any prize money. This might have drawn some threads together and almost justified the premise that a husband wouldn't recognise his wife with some minor facial rearrangement. But no.Visually, it's really attractive, and most of the cast deliver their roles competently. But it's a flimsy house built on quicksand. On the plus side, it moves at a comfortable pace and wasn't boring. But I didn't find it convincing in the least.