"Was du nicht siehst" or "Sommerspiel" or "What You Don't See" is a German/Austrian co-production from 2009, so two more years only until this one will have its 10th anniversary. This is the most known work by writer and director Wolfgang Fischer, but that means nothing as he only made only one short film before this one here and that was back in 2001. But perhaps his new 2017 movie (the first since 2009) will make a difference finally. He sure is not very much on the prolific side. Anyway, taking this lack of experience into account the cast is somewhat spectacular as at least four people here will certainly be known to fans of German films. The movie runs for slightly under 1.5 hours and is described as an "impressive psychological thriller", but I cannot take this description seriously at all. There is nothing impressive about this film sadly. It slowly moves forward without anything happening really, anything of interest. Now that would be okay if they actually managed a decent character study instead, but this is also not the case. it tries to be the latter, but without success. Then they have the character of Frederick Lau bringing in the occasional cheap thrill and that's basically it. Yes the scenery is somewhat impressive, but this alone is absolutely not enough and it makes things even worse if they are relying on that while coming oh so short in other areas really. On a subjective note, I just don't see lead actor potential in Trepte and his effort here definitely did not change my opinion on him. It's somewhat baffling how long and successful his career already is compared to other young German actors with more talent who are struggling to find roles. Anyway, Trepte probably cannot be blamed as much as Fischer here as he is the big driving force behind this film and as such also behind it ending up as a disappointment. It is not a failure, but also not a good film by any means. Entirely forgettable from start to finish. Fits in very nicely with the pretentious title. Watch something else instead.
Review of Was du nicht siehst
