Stellead Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

gpeltz The film is Michael,(2011) Directed and written by Markus Schleinzer, I viewed it in it's original German, with Spanish subtitles. All this did not help me a bit in understanding what was going on. I watched it almost without words Everything was so low key The words were not missed. Spoiler Alert. This is a disturbing film, but it is well crafted and presented. It deals with a ten year old boy, Wolfgang, played by David Rauchenburger, held captive in the basement of Michael, an insurance adjuster, played by Michael Fuith. Michael clearly considers himself a caring guardian, feeding the boy, providing books and entertainments, There is absolutely non of the more lurid aspects of child abuse depicted sexual or otherwise, although it is strongly inferred. The movie presents a sterile emotionless relationship, an off kilter version of "playing house" making believe the bolted door does not exist.Wolfgang is a clever young lad, and knows what needs be done to survive his ordeal, he bides his time. Michael's life away from Wolfgang, consists of the day to day routines of going to work, being social at the office, and looking totally normal. The movie takes it's time. There are long cuts where the subjects are motionless. I had to check my system to see if it stalled out, as it sometimes does on you tube movies. No, it was shot with a casual regard for time or storytelling, and yet it held my attention (waiting for something to happen) Life steps in, The ending where we are to guess as to whether the boy lives or dies,is suppose to be ambiguous, but not in my book. An earnest and disturbing second film. I give it Eight out of ten "Art House" Stars. If you have a short attention span, skip it.

drpakmanrains I just watched this film on Netflix today, which predicted I would like it. I didn't. First, the pacing is painfully slow, with long stares by the characters which reveal little at best. Second, the boy, who is kept locked up for hours or days at a time, often in the dark, looks far healthier and well groomed than i would have expected. Third, there is no attempt to show how he managed to kidnap the boy, other than showing a failed attempt at getting a playmate (I assume for both of them). I didn't know that the director was associated with Michael Haneke, an art-house and critics favorite, but having seen "Funny Games", I can see why such a film as this might be made. That film was repellent, but at least in place of seeing the desired revenge, Haneke played a trick on the audience to intentionally deprive them of catharsis or satisfaction. This one does the same, but without any ploy. And don't be fooled into thinking we really learn much about what causes pedophilia. The film may look intellectual, but it only scratches the surface. It avoids cheap titillation, but replaces it with boredom and superficiality. Beware of the many positive reviews, as I am confident mainstream audiences will be totally turned off.

Jen Brown So, this movie is about a pedophile who's keeping a child in his basement. It's such a terrifying setup that initially I decided against seeing it. Then I read some very positive media reviews, which also mentioned there was nothing graphic, and so I decided to give it a go. (They also called it "darkly humorous", which I didn't see at all.) When I first saw the kid's face, I almost turned it off- like I said, this is an extremely disturbing premise. I actually kind of wish I did; I had been expecting something different, like a police scenario, or some back story about him (we don't get any history of Michael or Wolfgang.) Once you see Wolfgang, you just have to watch and hope he is going to end up better off. I couldn't turn off the movie with him in that situation (yes, I know it's not real, but we also know things like this do happen in the real world.)But rest assured there is no sexual contact between the man and the boy pictured in the movie- not even hugs or embraces- even though there's no doubt about what's going on. There is one scene where Michael takes out his penis, but it's about six feet away from Wolfgang, and it's not a sexual thing- he's actually making a weird joke (and it was shot in split screen so the young actor wasn't present for it.) The only explicit violence is against Michael, so you don't care, and even then it's not graphic.Michael is not only a pedophile, but as far as I can tell, a sociopath. This is a different representation of a pedophile than Todd Solonz's "Happiness" where the pedophile does seem to have empathy and shame. Michael is absolutely without either of these emotions. There's also something very "off" about him (you know, besides being a sociopathic pedophile), as shown in his social life and sense of humor.The movie is slow but not boring. It's very taut, and the ending had me holding my breath to see what would happen. (Some have said it's ambiguous, I didn't think so, but if you read the comments about the movie you'll get the director's view of what the ending was supposed to mean.) I wanted more denouement, but the comments also explain why the director chose to end the movie where he did. The acting is absolutely amazing. Michael Fuith is mesmerizing and brings out the banality of evil very skilfully. I usually do well with disturbing movies, but this was a stretch for me. I avoid anything with graphic violence against children, and this does indeed fit that criterion, but it is about something so terrible that anyone who is not disturbed has something wrong with them, in my opinion. That said, I think people can still appreciate this movie as a well-written and well-acted one. I wouldn't recommend this for anyone with children; I just can't imagine having a child and watching this movie.

mcdegg I was reluctant about this movie,it's a very hard subject to make a movie about...and i was right,this movie is sick and people who liked it are sick too.I skipped most of it because it disgusted me and I'm sure it will disgust you.Don't even try to watch it,you'll for sure regret it.What kind of a movie tryes to make the viewers emphatyze with a pedophile??The people involved on this should be ashamed and not allowed to work in another movie ever again!