tedserv Based on a freak car accident ... An injured child ... The quirqy hous in the woods ... The cheater, of course, gets his comeuppance ... Successful films get the viewer to suspend disbelief- this one didn't succeed for me. The characters really aren't consistent enough to be believable. Our boorish cheater suddenly becomes the film's philosopher. The car thief, who leaves the injured horse, girl and father, turns out to be the wonderful father.I also had the feeling it was forcing 'I'm an art film' on you.Blown potential

g-m-schaefer-my I agree with my dear friend worldwideweird, with whom I watched "Winterschläfer" and Tykwer's other movies many, many times."Winterschläfer" is one of the best German-movies, if not the best one, and after you've watched it you'll see the world and all the people around you in a different light. There are three reasons for the immense effect of "Winterschläfer":1) the movie picks out as central themes questions that nearly everybody has asked himself: what is my fate? And how is this fate connected with the life of other people? Is there somebody or something watching every step of mine? Where can I find the one that'll change my life? What if this person is sitting in the train just passing by, thinking about the meaning of life and hoping to find someone too?2)These questions are mixed in an extremely thrilling and complex story, set in a small village near Berchtesgaden in the wintry German Alps, a location which is otherwise in film history known only for bad 70s-"Lederhosen"-soft-sex-movies an so called "Heimatfilme" (can be seen nearly every day in German TV, not all are so bad).3)The characters are complex and credible, and they all have their little faults (my favorite is Marco, the guy who's always jealous and seems to be a little bit dim, played by the unique Heino Ferch). If you watch it, pay attention to the color-dramaturgy (is this the right word???): every main character has its own colour as a symbol for his specific character traits.After all, everything in this movie is outstanding: music, sound, camera actions...; this is a real perfect movie, and the only thing I can not understand is that it had become so little attention in Germany. There is even no DVD out here, the Americans got one, really funny!

BlueBoy77 This is one of best german movies ever. If you disagree, you might didn´t understand it! Great story with awesome actors, incredible music and a thrilling atmosphere. It´s the first movie of director Tom Tykwer and it´s still his best!!

TheVid Nice audio/visuals and good performances make this a watchable character study that's highly derivative of the more complex stuff by Canadian director Atom Egoyan (particularly THE SWEET HEREAFTER, as noted by many reviewers here). It's all rather contrived and simplistic to be significant intellectually, but it's decent enough adult melodrama to warrant a look.