"Schatten der Erinnerung" or "Shadows of Memory" (terrible title: incredibly pretentious, pseudo-important and says nothing about the film) is a German/Austrian co-production from 2010, so this film has its 10th anniversary this year and it runs for 1.5 hours almost just like television films do most of the time here in Germany. The director is Hartmut Griesmayr and this name is just like his writers really nothing too familiar, even for film buffs like myself. Same is true about the two writers and one of these two really has a body of work where you see immediately that it lacks talent whatsoever. So no surprise really this film turned out such a mess. Still I find it always baffling when there is more than one person in charge of the script and apparently they don't see both of them how poorly written this is because otherwise they would have corrected each other's mistakes. So now you already know what I think about this movie. I think the main reason why this turned out a failure really is the script, but admittedly the actors in here also did not exactly help the cause. Julia Stemberger is definitely not lead material. Riefenstein is as bland as it gets. And Mendl, perhaps the most known cast member, is a decent actor in my opinion, so I am a bit surprised why he is part of a film like this. His character is also not written convincingly at all, so I am not surprised his performance is justg as forgettable. It seems that they tried to make the audience ignore the weak writing by shoving all kinds of beautiful aspects into our faces. This includes on the one hand the beautiful mountainside (which was obviously not created by the filmmakers, othrwise it would not be beautiful) and on the other hand they included many animals here, like really cute cats, dogs and even calves. But this is only gonna trick the untrained eye. If I want to see amazing nature, I go outside or watch a documentary.
The lack of quality acting here also extends to the one child actress in here has not been in a film for 9 years and probably never will be. It's probably the right decision. Still, I want to say again that the biggest mess here is the script. There are so many examples that feel fake, scripted and for the sake of it all. Not once did I feel as if I was watching authentic characters. It's the minor moments too, for example how the female protagonist turns around when hearing the male protagonist's voice on one occasion. Still the film also sucks at its core. It is pretty ridiculous they are trying to tell us Stemberger's character is actually a scientist. I am 100% sure that actual scientists could convince us that all the nature events happening in here have nothing to do with reality. The epitome of try-hard drama for the sake of it. Also how of course the two lovebirds kiss in the face of the catastrophe outside with the storm hauling. Another area where the film crucially fails is the main antagonist. How they basically blamed her indirectly for the death of the mother years ago is tough to stomach. Not because it is emotional or so, but because it is so simple. "Simple" is the perfect word to describe this film anyway, although it is trying so hard to be deep. Everything here is simple. If what we find out about the antagonist, including her tear-filled meltdown at the end (because Stemberger's character was right all along obviously), is what they consider giving shades and depth to characters, then they should never be allowed near a pen again. Simply terrible. The worst moment of the film was maybe the scene when the female protagonistg rushes to the scenery to keep the lumberjacks from doing their job and basically every word the characters say there, especially the main antagonist. As for Riefenstein, it is also cringeworthy how bland the character is from beginning to end and how of course he always stands next to his past lover instead of his wife. The explanation about how they broke up back then made me think that these people were genuinely mentally disabled, especially in the face of the final revelation. No idea what they were thinking there, but at that point I had lost all my faith already anyway, even if admittedly these words showing us he is the dad of the girl (surprise, surprise) took the film further down into the abysses of movies completely void of talent. The easily-influenced will perhaps consider this an especially emotional or sweet ending though. I would not be surprise. The overall verdict here is that this film is even way too bad to be shown around noon at television here and best would be is no audience ever got exposed to this. The reasons? Take the complete lack of chemistry between the two main characters. Take the over-the-top soundtrack. Or just take everything I wrote before that made it very obvious that this movie was taking itself really seriously, while lacking the talent altogether to have a right to do so. If you are American, let me say that the outcome here is basically what Twister would have looked like if it had gone wrong the worst way you could imagine. Huge thumbs-down from me, highly not recommended.
The lack of quality acting here also extends to the one child actress in here has not been in a film for 9 years and probably never will be. It's probably the right decision. Still, I want to say again that the biggest mess here is the script. There are so many examples that feel fake, scripted and for the sake of it all. Not once did I feel as if I was watching authentic characters. It's the minor moments too, for example how the female protagonist turns around when hearing the male protagonist's voice on one occasion. Still the film also sucks at its core. It is pretty ridiculous they are trying to tell us Stemberger's character is actually a scientist. I am 100% sure that actual scientists could convince us that all the nature events happening in here have nothing to do with reality. The epitome of try-hard drama for the sake of it. Also how of course the two lovebirds kiss in the face of the catastrophe outside with the storm hauling. Another area where the film crucially fails is the main antagonist. How they basically blamed her indirectly for the death of the mother years ago is tough to stomach. Not because it is emotional or so, but because it is so simple. "Simple" is the perfect word to describe this film anyway, although it is trying so hard to be deep. Everything here is simple. If what we find out about the antagonist, including her tear-filled meltdown at the end (because Stemberger's character was right all along obviously), is what they consider giving shades and depth to characters, then they should never be allowed near a pen again. Simply terrible. The worst moment of the film was maybe the scene when the female protagonistg rushes to the scenery to keep the lumberjacks from doing their job and basically every word the characters say there, especially the main antagonist. As for Riefenstein, it is also cringeworthy how bland the character is from beginning to end and how of course he always stands next to his past lover instead of his wife. The explanation about how they broke up back then made me think that these people were genuinely mentally disabled, especially in the face of the final revelation. No idea what they were thinking there, but at that point I had lost all my faith already anyway, even if admittedly these words showing us he is the dad of the girl (surprise, surprise) took the film further down into the abysses of movies completely void of talent. The easily-influenced will perhaps consider this an especially emotional or sweet ending though. I would not be surprise. The overall verdict here is that this film is even way too bad to be shown around noon at television here and best would be is no audience ever got exposed to this. The reasons? Take the complete lack of chemistry between the two main characters. Take the over-the-top soundtrack. Or just take everything I wrote before that made it very obvious that this movie was taking itself really seriously, while lacking the talent altogether to have a right to do so. If you are American, let me say that the outcome here is basically what Twister would have looked like if it had gone wrong the worst way you could imagine. Huge thumbs-down from me, highly not recommended.
