Child's Play (1992) User Reviews

The authenticity department is where the film delivers

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 27 July 2017]

"Kinderspiele" is a German 110-minute film from 1992, so this one has its 25th anniversary this year. It is the second full feature film by writer and director Wolfgang Becker, who is mostly known for Goodbye Lenin today of course, but I would say that this one here is not worse than his trademark movie, perhaps even better. It is the story of a boy looking for happiness, but his broken family keeps destroying his hope all the time. This especially refers to the boy's father and that one is played by Burghart Klaußner who proves that back then he was already very good. Today, he is a definite contender for my favorite German actor still with all the great stuff he has starred in the last decade. He also returned for GBL to work with Becker, even if it is a smaller role in that one. Back to this one here: It is a very depressing film I would say. Every time the boy seems to find a bit of happiness, it is destroyed afterward fairly quickly, usually by his violent dad beating the crap out of him. This is especially true at the very end of the movie when tragedy ensues and destroys everything. Or makes everything better? It's up to you to decide I guess how the story would have continued after closing credits roll in. Maybe there is a sense of satisfaction in the ending even. But also before that it is a pretty decent movie. Yes it is very bleak from start to finish, but it helps with the realism and authenticity aspect I guess. There weren't too many moments when it drags and that's a decent achievement given the runtime. The child actors were also solid, did what they had to do. One of the most interesting scenarios is probably when the mother leaves and the violent father has to take care of his son on his own. You don't know what will happen next at that point. And it is also up to interpretation if you take a closer look at the scenes, such as the kite flying scene for example. Yes he spends some time with his son, but the dominant ruthless behavior by the dad is not gone if you take a look at how he talks to him during this scene in particular. Overall, this was a good watch and it is certainly one of the better (probably not best) German films I have seen from the 1990s. I wish Becker could reach that level again as I must say I found his "Goodbye Lenin" not a bad film, but very much overrated and his most recent work "Ich und Kaminski" was not a good film by any means, embarrassingly bad at times in its attempts to be relevant. This old film here is the exact opposite as it is calm, restrained and not at all in your face. I really hope one of Becker's upcoming projects will be back to the roots. Until then, I recommend "Child's Play". It's probably not too easy these days with all the time passed to get a hand on it, but if you do, then go check it out. Thumbs up.

Children's games are no child's play

[ChWasser · 1 October 1999]

This film tells the sad story of a childhood somewhere in Germany in the early 60s. When Micha's mother leaves his irascible father, he tries to prevent their divorce by any means he can think of, but his attempts to hold the family together lead to a catastrophe. The film shows in a brilliant way how pressure and violence is passed along to an inferior person: Micha's father beats his son because he's frustrated about the poverty they have to live in and Micha vents *his* aggressions by teasing his little brother or the senile grandma of his best friend Olli.

What I really like about the film (besides being moved to tears) is the realism and attention to detail in everything from dialogue to set-design. It's all dead-on. Even today children in Germany still tell the obscene "poems" which Micha learns from Olli ("Rot ist die Liebe, schwarz ist das Loch ..."). Another example: When they refurnish the room of Micha's granny copies of the "Völkischer Beobachter" (an infamous Nazi-newspaper) appear below the wallpaper, indicating that the Third Reich wasn't that long ago. Or: When Micha is told to bring some plums to relatives you can see that they have more exotic (and expensive) fruits in a bowl on the table, indicating the difference in the social position in a very subtle way. The script is full of these exact observations, so that you'll discover something new even the third or fourth time you see this little gem.