TdSmth5 This is an excellent thriller/action movie. A professional hit-man becomes interested in the partner of his latest victim, who was under careful surveillance. In a way she's also a witness because he left her alive and she could have noticed something. She turns out to be distraught and he saves her. Being reluctant to engage in a relationship he appears and disappears in her life. Meanwhile a smart detective is after him noticing that this killer is characterized by his soundlessness.I see a lot of resemblances with the movie Heat: you have the proficient and likable bad guy, an equality outstanding cop on his trail, the bad guy who is all business falls in love but is not capable of expressing it, and in the shadows is someone else controlling the bad guy. This movie though has a more satisfying ending.This movie is intelligent, quiet, the characters also act by instinct not so much as by procedure (as in TV CSIs). It doesn't rely on loud special effects. But is thrilling when you see the bad guy act out his carefully planned hits.My only problem is with the casting. The hit-man is indeed cast against type. The problem is that he just doesn't have the physical constitution for the job. Also it seems that at some point, the movie makers forgot about the cop. He's supposed to be the hit-man's counterpart but in the later part of the movie he gets less interesting.A highly recommended film.

gradyharp LAUTLOS (Soundless) is yet another film by Director/writer Mennan Yapo (with writing assists form Lars-Olaf Beier) that takes on a story of a hit man on his last job and makes it into a fine psychological thriller. The cinematography, lighting, music and pacing of this strangely dark film provide an excellent background for a superb cast of actors.Viktor (Joachim Król) is an aging hit man, a perfectionist whose reputation as a genius killer includes the fact that he works so well that he is soundless in his paid executions. We are privy to his mind's working as he focuses on his last hit, a man with a lady in his room Nina (the very beautiful Nadja Uhl) whose life he spares in the hit, an act of emotional response to the beautiful woman but an act that causes his employer to set a mark on him for his failure. Viktor saves Nina from suicide and the two become enchanted with each other. Viktor has found love at the end of his career as a murderer: Nina wants to get to know Viktor better before committing to his advances. Enter the police headed by the brilliant Lang (Christian Berkel) who is determined to capture Viktor by studying his patterns and mind tracings. Viktor and Nina are on the run but with a goal - that they will join at the sea and leave the life of crime. But before this can happen they must go through a literal wall of flames (a touch of Wagner, here). How the cat and mouse chase comes into play and resolves is the satisfying end to this polished little thriller.Król, Uhl, and Berkel (in addition to a fine supporting cast) make this tense drama intimate and penetrating and Yapo's direction keeps the pace breathless. This is a fine little thriller in German with English subtitles. Grady Harp

wrlang Soundless (lautlos) is about a hit man named Vicktor that falls for a one night stand that just happened to sleep with one of Victor's victims. Nina is sleeping in the victims bed just feet from Vicktor's 'soundless' hit. A detective named Lang that is sent in to solve the case, because of his ability to form close connections with the psyche of the hit man. Lang trains snipers how to kill, and formulates strategies on how to catch Victor using mild CSI like tactics. Lang discovers Victor's true identity and his unhappy childhood as Felix, the son of a gun maker who met an untimely end. Vicktor's mentor Martin is an old arms dealer friend of his dead father who gets the hit list and passes it on to Vicktor. In 'The Matador' style, Vicktor is racing against time to perform his last hit consisting of the very well guarded man who ordered the hit on Vicktor and Martin. Victor plans this hit while wooing Nina, hiding from Lang, and avoiding the hit men out to get him. Will Nina and Vicktor make the hit and escape from Lang to paradise found? The almost emotionless style fits well with the theme and should not be mistaken for bad acting. Soundless is definitely up to modern standards in film making.

Ed Cohen The action film, like the crime novel, is a satisfying ritual—with an allegory of good overcoming evil as its centerpiece—for many people. In the USA, this is normally done with famous stars and elaborate stunts, the better to make it "realistic" and "believable." I pass on most of those films because they seem silly to me. I cannot "buy" their pretensions to believability."Soundless" makes no pretense of believability. This film sustains a stylized, dreamlike quality throughout. The story is carried by the images. The dialog is banal because it is incidental. (That is in keeping, and does not detract from the film for me.) I found it thoroughly refreshing to spend ninety-four minutes in that dream, at the Philadelphia Film Festival.This year, I have seen a veritable treasure trove of new German films that took themes seen before, and took them in new directions in keeping with changed times. While a wide theater release for "Soundless" may be too much to hope for, I hope it will be available for people in the USA desiring to see it.