In the Face of Crime (2010) User Reviews

Yes, German TV is alive!

[mellon01 · 9/10 · 16 May 2010]

It has been called the „German Twin Peaks" (considering the appeal it might have on its audience) by acclaimed journalists, "Hollywood made in Germany" declared others. Maybe those comments came out of a deep longing for good productions, that have sadly been missing from local TV screens for quite some time.

But maybe all that praise comes from the simple fact, that it is – indeed – brilliant: The breadth of narration, the sheer number of speaking parts and motifs and the overall worthwhileness make it essential viewing for anyone.

In its 450 minutes it comes as a study of underworld shenanigans in Germany's capital, not shying away from showing all that scum that Travis Bickle would want to have washed away by the rain. And then at once it is a buddy flick, dealing with two upcoming cop's ambition to make the big catch. Only that one of them (Marek) wants to find the murderer of his brother, who himself was once attached to organized crime, which gives "Im Angesicht des Verbrechens" its general setting.

And the creators do so while finding a good balance between the locations, the mood and the characters involved.

But maybe the biggest strength of this series lies in finding an emotional backing by the story of Marek and Jelana (a young Russian that has been lured to Berlin in the prospect of a good job and finding her big love, only to been sold a prostitute) that encompasses the series' and its protagonists' dilemma in carrying out one's duty whilst handling your personal incentives.

I do not even try to come near to listing all story arcs and themes. Just find out yourself.

Yes, German TV is alive!

Apparently realistic and versatile, yet with several flaws for them aware of Russia(ns)

[BeneCumb · 8/10 · 18 June 2016]

The series in question has brought forth a lot of ambivalent thoughts and feelings for me. On the one hand, its course of events and many actors (particularly Max Riemelt as Marek Gorsky, Alina Levshin as Jelena, Mark Ivanir as Andrej) met my eye from the first episode, but many clichés about Russians and their comprehensions (vodka, noisy parties, corruption), as well as a lot of broken Russian uttered made the watching complex at times.

Moreover, I felt sometimes that some scenes became too scattered and/or were intended to fill out the total length, but still... I could still imagine that for general audience, for them not knowing Russian and without direct contacts with Russia and its people, Im Angesicht des Verbrechens is a captivating and skilfully accomplished creation about the life in contemporary Berlin where the diversity accompanied by immigrants and tourists is not always a benefit, when "old" locals have to cope with new type of business and management methods. The thrill is there, the love is there, the violence is there, and all this was masterfully combined into a story with several twists and turns, with comic and tragic elements included.

So, despite the shortcomings mentioned above, I still give 8 points, i.e. trying to "forget" my background and time of youth, confirming that I have become a full Westerner... :)

A good show with some flaws butchered down in post-production to a decent one

[TonyCamonte84 · 7/10 · 25 December 2013]

'Im Angesicht des Verbrechens' is without a doubt one of the best German shows in quite some time, which is not saying much, though, considering the abysmal quality of recent German TV programming. Amidst all of the dreck 'Im Angesicht des Verbrechens' distinguishes itself with a good story, a variety of good characters, and a general ambition, which is very refreshing, even if it's not always lived up to.

The show is quite well written, but ultimately let down by sub-par editing and various stylistic missteps. I can overlook those up to a degree, but they constantly overshadowed an otherwise decent show.

Also, while there are some good actors at work, some of the less important roles are played by lesser actors. Way too often I found my attention diverted because the characters would speak so unnaturally. Many of them over-pronounce their words, and it felt like they were reading their lines instead of acting them out. The script is also guilty of underestimating the viewers' intelligence and feeling the need to spell out every single thing. The show would tell you about things instead of showing them. Too often we would be shown a flashback of something we'd already seen at least twice, when it gets mentioned in a new episode. A little trust in the viewers' ability to remember those scenes would be greatly appreciated.

However, with all those negatives mentioned, 'Im Angesicht des Verbrechens' is still a very good show, telling an interesting story in a mostly well-done way. It's good, but just falls short of being great for a variety of reasons, most of which could have easily been avoided. It's still the best German TV show for quite some time, apart from KDD- Kriminaldauerdienst.

In the face of the absence of talent

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 4 February 2019]

"Im Angesicht des Verbrechens" or "In the Face of Crime" is a German television mini series from 2010, so it is almost a decade old now. It consists of 10 episodes of slightly under 50 minutes, so you can watch the entire thing in about 8 hours if you have the determination to do so. I would not recommend it, however. Maybe 2 sittings of 4 hours seem more appropriate or whatever you deem right. IF you want to watch it, that is. And again, I would not recommend it. This is a work written by Rolf Basedow and he worked with director Dominik Graf on many occasions already. Should be the recipe for a quality outcome right? Well it did not turn out this way. But I am not surprised. I find it baffling how long Graf has been in the industry making films for the small and big screen and how many awards he has received during his long career and yet how incredibly limited his filmmaking ability is. I have seen a lot more from him than this work, but there is never a really high level of creativity to any of his works. Sure, maybe you can blame Basedow here too because a director can only make so much out of a really weak script. It is a bit of everything I suppose. Just one moment I want to mention, namely when we have a scene in one of the later, but not final, episodes when the two protagonists are sitting in a car observing a potential crime scene and then another cop comes to their car and blows their cover. For whatever reason, Graf (and not just in that scene) randomly splits the screen into two or three parts filming the same situation from different perspectives. I have no idea what his motivation behind that was. To show us the angles from which the criminals now realize that there is an observation going on? I don't know. It is more like grasping for straws desperately to find some approach that makes sense. But I don't admittedly. And there are more bizarre camera choices like this one. It is as if Graf is trying so hard to make something different whatsoever that he doesn't even care how he does it and the outcome is pathetic.

Next problem is the cast, well partially. I did like the actor who played the police chief and Zehrfeld is reliable as always. However, Riemelt is just not good enough of an actor to carry such a project on his shoulders. I probably did not see more than three face expressions here from start to finish coming from him. Alina Levshin is normally a much better actress than she is capable of showing us here. Partially her fault, but more the writing I think. She feels like a desperate filler because they had to establish some kind of romantic relationship for the main character. And these moments when they are without clothes, but with booze, in pretty dangerous situations feel atmospheric maybe but empty and not a challenge at all for the actors. And well, the other female protagonist, Marie Bäumer, I always thought was an actress completely void of any talent whatsoever and yes her recent success was because she looked like Romy Schneider, not because she played the part convincingly or anything. Also if you have seen her how she behaves herself as a private person (Beltracchi episode), you know there is nothing real or authentic about this actress. Embarrassing stuff. Anyway, back to this project here. You could basically summarize it that it shows us the ways in whcih Russian organized crime goes up against police in Berlin. Talking about Berlin, I live in this city myself, have done so for a really long time already and I must say that the impacxt and role of Berlin here was shockingly minimal and it could have played anywhere else, which is especially disappointing as there is even one episode where the word "Berlin" is used in the title, so they tried to deliver from that perspective too, but came short. And all between this, there is the character of Riemelt, indirectly stuck between his job as a police officer and his Russian background and affections for Levshin's character. And of course his sister and her love for an influential Russian man. Another ridiculous moment when we find out near the end nobody knew inside the police force about Riemelt's character's family background. There were so many parts that did not make any sense whatsoever. Like the cringeworthy scene when we have Zehrfeld being shot near the end and the words he says at Riemelt. Unreal how Zehrfeld even pulled that off almost. There is no worse way to prepare a big showdown.

And then there is the character of Sokolov. Is he the main antagonist? Maybe. The scene when he flees from the police station is still fairly memorable. But then he is out for pretty much the entire series for whatever reason before they bring him back eventually with a random story lie that he is all of a sudden the protagonist's brother's killer. Oh my. Hardly anything really feels authentic from this project and almost all of it for the sake of it all. The dialogue writing felt especially weak many many times, in a way that characters would not actually speak like that and say these things. If you watch this series, then you will know what I mean pretty quickly. I will spare you further concrete examples. IIt is like a bad dub with weak translation, only that it is the original version. Another moment when this series is struggling story-wise is how all of a sudden Bäumer's character within minutes changes from grieving wife into rock-hard business woman who wants to continue her man's empire all of a sudden and refuses a gift of several million Euros and a villa. Just for the sake of showing us how tough she is? Of course that story line was completely neglected moments later again. I have no idea what they were thinking. It is really the epitome of weak character writing I must say, especially when it comes to the female characters included in here. I already ttalked about the two in the center and well others don't have that much screen time. The little Russian girl is only scared all the time, the other female police colleague is going through a divorce and randomly has sex after a parachute jump from an airplane with her two colleagues. Oh my. All in all, I would say all 10 episodes are basically 2 stars out of 5 and in my opinion with how seriously this series takes itself, this is still quite a bit on the generous side in my opinion. I just don't see anything in Graf and I wonder if he will ever make a movie where he finally manages to wow me. I somehow doubt it. There is also always some cringe to his efforts like how he only included last names in the intro, in terms of the cast as well as him and Basedow. I also watched his other (Romania-based) police-themed movie where he reunited with Zehrfeld "Zielfahnder" and that one was just as embarrassing. The subject had so so much more to offer here, but it is all gimmicky, showy and never really deep or convincing. In my opinion, you should really skip the watch and I am baffled by how well-received this one is here on imdb and also by audiences. It is for the easily entertained. If you still want to check it out, go for episode one, but don't expect it to get any better afterward. Thumbs down. Not recommended.