Sundance Review: BERLIN SYNDROME Is a Brutally Intense Thriller
Teresa Palmer has been a roll starring in solidly good movies lately. She recently has starred in films such as Lights Out and Hacksaw Ridge, and now she stars in an upcoming film called Berlin Syndrome. It's easily one of her best and insane roles to date. She killed it in this film and gave an incredible performance.
Palmer plays a young women named Clare, who travels to Berlin on a journey to explore the city and take photos of the architecture. Along the way, she meets a charming young man named Andi (Max Riemelt) who woos her into staying in Berlin to be with him a little longer. This choice to stay turns into a complete nightmare as Andi turns out to be a complete nutjob. He ends up locking her in her apartment and holding her as a prisoner with no plans on letting her leave alive.
The film is utterly brutal and extremely intense as we watch this young woman forced to survive in this horrific situation. This dude who locked her away has got some serious issues and as the story unfolds, Teresa unlocks some of the mysteries that he's been hiding from her.
As I was watching this movie, all I wanted was for Palmer to escape and get the hell out of there! She has several failed attempts through the course of the movie, and it's so damn discouraging! It's just brutal watching her deal with all the shit that she has to go through.
One thing that bugged me about the film is how many situations I saw for her to take advantage of to try to escape that she didn't do! It was frustrating seeing certain moments where you see something that she could do to escape and then she doesn't take advantage of the opportunity.
Regardless of that, Berlin Syndrome was a very well-made film that I think some audiences will enjoy. It all depends on if you enjoy these kinds of crazy heart-pounding movies.