German audiences are certainly familiar with Heino Ferch ("Downfall). Just like so many others he has returned to the small screen for crime thriller work. "Schande" (Disgrace) is already the fourth film since 2010 in the "Spuren des Bösen" (Traces of Evil) film series. All these run for slightly under 90 minutes and are directed by Austrian Andreas Prochaska ("In 3 Tagen bist du tot", "Das finstere Tal") and written by Martin Ambrosch. Ferch's character is quite clichéd actually: a character with great knowledge on medicine and criminal investigation who holds speeches at universities and solves crimes, but cannot really solve the issues in his private life as he has an affair with a married woman for example. It's the whole fighting his inner demons storyline all over again.
I personally did not find this entry very interesting, but maybe it's necessary to watch it from the start to be fully sucked into the action. Or maybe it is because I just don't see any great acting talent in Ferch. To me he is like Heiner Lauterbach (another over-hyped actor), but at least Lauterbach has a decent amount of charisma in contrast to Ferch. Apart from that, it was very obvious who did it in this film as there were really no other suspects in the movie. This may work in "Columbo" films, but here it didn't. The ending with the evil grandma was not too bad though and actually a decent showdown. Also it's interesting to see the guy sit on a bench at the end and I wondered if he will maybe return as the main antagonist. He had a stalking tendency, but he may also be smart enough to stay away from Ferch's character in order to avoid being arrested.
Anyway, everything before the final 15 minutes was just not too exciting, especially the acting, so I cannot recommend watching this crime thriller.
I personally did not find this entry very interesting, but maybe it's necessary to watch it from the start to be fully sucked into the action. Or maybe it is because I just don't see any great acting talent in Ferch. To me he is like Heiner Lauterbach (another over-hyped actor), but at least Lauterbach has a decent amount of charisma in contrast to Ferch. Apart from that, it was very obvious who did it in this film as there were really no other suspects in the movie. This may work in "Columbo" films, but here it didn't. The ending with the evil grandma was not too bad though and actually a decent showdown. Also it's interesting to see the guy sit on a bench at the end and I wondered if he will maybe return as the main antagonist. He had a stalking tendency, but he may also be smart enough to stay away from Ferch's character in order to avoid being arrested.
Anyway, everything before the final 15 minutes was just not too exciting, especially the acting, so I cannot recommend watching this crime thriller.
