Despite being allegedly hard-up, the two lead characters look like well fed, well paid ZDF Neo TV presenters, and both about as German as they come. In the book Sonia is an alienated young Italian, and her boyfriend a clueless wandering pole, which kind of makes sense. The film falls prey to the common desire by German filmmakers to make everything look as **nice** as possible, totally undermining any believability in the storyline. Here the homeless boyfriend carries in his tiny backpack apparently only a screwdriver, a torn KRZBRG teeshirt and... an endless wardrobe of expensive Adidas Neo clubwear. In the book Sonia lived in scummy Moabit in the 2000s - in the film though she lives today on one of the most expensive streets in Berlin. The filmmakers might as well have just given her an Audi A7 to drive around in while she ponders the source of her money problems.
An insane amount of banal exposition is delivered in PERFECTLY accented German, the film whizzes through a tour of locations that it looks like they got from last years Lonely Planet, and worst of all there is no drive or tension in the story whatsoever. Sonia, despite an apparently hedonistic and expensive lifestyle (note to filmmakers - drugs in Berlin are cheaper than beer) appears in every scene looking like she just stepped out of the health-club showers after 9 hours of sleep. There is nothing to care about in this film unless you just want to look at moving postcards of a 20-year-old's idealised vacation in "cool" Berlin.
An insane amount of banal exposition is delivered in PERFECTLY accented German, the film whizzes through a tour of locations that it looks like they got from last years Lonely Planet, and worst of all there is no drive or tension in the story whatsoever. Sonia, despite an apparently hedonistic and expensive lifestyle (note to filmmakers - drugs in Berlin are cheaper than beer) appears in every scene looking like she just stepped out of the health-club showers after 9 hours of sleep. There is nothing to care about in this film unless you just want to look at moving postcards of a 20-year-old's idealised vacation in "cool" Berlin.