Phantomschmerz (2009) User Reviews

Great movie about overcoming of pain and making dreams come true

[gorian-1 · 7/10 · 6 January 2010]

As I am an injured cyclist myself this movie was a true revelation to me. It's too hard to pass such s black line of destiny that Mark did. In the beginning the only thing that he wanted is to be useful for his family. To help his ex-wife and to love his lovely daughter. And certainly the only thing that he lives with was cycling. In Marks childhood his father made a big mistake in drowning grief in wine, his only son was left alone in the world of misunderstanding and pain. Even good talents were deeply hidden under the mask of feelings and anger. The anger on his father. Marks is overcoming his tragedy with great help of his best friend and with love of a beautiful woman who see a light in him and made everything to release it. Great story, great playing. Sometimes dialogs are too continuous but it gives a fine atmosphere for the movie. If you are fond of cycling or living through the chain of losses in your life - Phantom pain is your choice.

Tough to find it authentic

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 6 February 2018]

"Phantomschmerz" or "Phantom Pain" is a German 95-minute movie released back in 2009, so this one has its 10th anniversary next year and it is the first and only full feature film effort by writer and director Matthias Emcke, who otherwise seems to focus on producing. Today this movie is mostly known because it has Til Schweiger playing the central character and he is joined by major supporting players Erceg and especially Pallaske. This is typical German stuff that gets made these days too I would say. It's not a failure, but it rarely feels realistic in the sense that you are watching anything other than actors, which hurts the film especially in the more dramatic moments as well as when they try to get in some (not so) subtle comedy. Schweiger, however, was a bit of a positive surprise here as his acting is better than usual, but he nonetheless cannot make the flawed script work either. Kinda unusual to see him with long hair. We got the story of an ambitious cyclist whose life changes in a tragic accident from one second to the next. It takes a while until said accident happens, so we get a great deal of character elaboration already from way before that. Nothing too memorable though. Everything afterward is the typical clichéd path to mental health for the main character that is plastered with a whole lot of rocks obviously when it comes to finding love and friendship and acceptance of one's life (again). Yes it is too melodramatic at times I would say and judging from the overall quality, it also takes itself more seriously than it should really, which is a pity as here and there you get an okay moment that proves not all hope is lost in hoping this could actually a good film. Admittedly, you need to say that this turned out better probably than it would have today with most likely Schweighöfer starring in it and this perhaps would have been unwatchable. Anyway, there are still too many weaknesses in here and unsatisfying character writing (dialogues too frequently) for everybody but Schweiger make it impossible for me to give this film a positive recommendation. Overall a thumbs-down. Watch something else instead.