"Eine verhängnisvolle Nacht" is a German television film from 2013, so only two more years (and a few months) until this project has the tenth anniversary of its release. Like most other German small screen movies, this one here stays slightly udner the 1.5-hour mark as well. The title could be translated "A Fateful Night", although I cannot come up with a better word for verhängnisvoll right now because there is definitely an almost exclusively negative tone to this word. But it is not as strong as "devastating" for example, even if the events here certainly were. The writer and director is Miguel Alexandre. I have seen ther stuff from him too and I have not always been impressed, but this one here has to be among his better efforts overall, also in terms of the script. He only wrote the screenplays for approximately half of his releases, so not to be taken for granted that he did here and maybe he always should. By the way, the mam was born in Portugal, but started making films here in Germany since the start of his career already back in the old millennium. He was in his mid 40s when he worked on this one, so launched his career when he was approximately 30. Water seems to be something frequently included in his works as he has recently worked on projects that carry the words "lake" and "sea" in the title and even if this one here does not, the sea still plays a major role at the very end at least and also with the foreshadowing as we see the moments before the final escalation already in the very first minutes of the film. I was not too big on that idea and would have preferred the film to be completely chronological, but this may be just personal taste and it is one of not too many issues I had with the outcome here.
The two actors you see on the photo here on imdb are Silke Bodenbender and Matthias Brandt. They are the two leads and I think both were good enough. The standout, however, for me is definitely Brandt here. He is apparently also the only one from cast and crew who received some awards recognition. Ironically, he lost the Jupiter Award back then to another actor from his trademark series "Polizeiruf 110". Anyway, with Brandt I always think of another film in which he played the husband to a violent wife and here the tables are turned and he is the creepy guy, even if they are not married obviously. So he can play both sides at the end of the scale convincingly. But I will talk a bit about the exact contents and plot later on. let's stay with the cast for now. Younger audiences will definitely be delighted to find Jella Haase in here and I was a bit surprised too because she is doing so much big screen work right now, but then again this was 7.5 years ago and also the most successful German actors keep returning to the small screen occasionally. She plays the female protagonist's daughter this time. Dustin Raschdorf, the actor that plays the boy, has not enjoyed the same success and it seems still undecided if he stays in acting as a grown-up. But he was, with Haase, also in "Fack ju Göhte" the film that was her big breakthrough in 2013, so the exact same year this movie here came out, even if Raschdorf's role was very small only. Other actors you find in here are Ulrike C. Tscharre, who appeared in the Oscar-nominated "Werk ohne Autor" not too long ago, Rolf Becker (why In aller Freundschaft, Rolf?) and Hansa Czypionka (I think he was also part of some stage play here in Berlin not too long ago on the subject of tennis), so the cast certainly includes a few people who are extremely experienced, probably several others too that I haven't mentioned. Feel free to check out the cast list for yourself.
So I already made a few references to the story and I will keep doing so. At its core, this is about a woman who ends up in a romantic relationship with a colleague, but things go south quickly as he turns out to be really violence. Not the most original plot to be honest, but the actors and writer still make it work for the most part and I was wondering what would happen next to the characters. Even with the constant threat by Brandt's character, they kept it not too graphic. This refers to the rape scene, but also to the exact violence we see. For example, I would not have been surprised if the character had killed Haase's character in the (almost) final scene, even if she was not his primary target. But he just knocked her down. Still the confrontation at the seaside, but also the attack on the bridge in the dark or when she exposes him to his new boss were moments that were really showy, but nonetheless felt authentic and that is something you almost never see when it comes to German television films. The good thing here probably was that they were zero going for comedy. No need for a new boyfriend at the end or forced happy ending. Well, the words we see on screen are a bit of a happy ending, but I will say a few words on that in the next paragraph. As for the small moments, I really liked the way the man perceived his ex-girlfriend's inability to be with men and open herself to them. Or also how he gets to meet her and maybe it was all planned with the punishment for her son or maybe already there he enjoyed it to humiliate her indirectly. Not 100% safe. The talk before the rape was among the best dialogue writing the film has to offer. You can see how he is disgusted for example that she was not the one who left her boyfriend, but his significant other is a woman who seems less desirable because she is the one being left and also she appears weak to him because of that, although you could say the opposite is the case because she broght up two children on her own. Or is about to do so.
As for the weaker moments, these words I just mentioned at the end of the screen seemed like some kind of happy ending pseudo closure and I did not like it at all. I mean it's obvious he is scared of witness and otherwise he would kill her immediately as we see with the children there (of course the gun also has an impact) or the guy walking his dog earlier and he definitely does not want to go to jail again, but Alexandre throwing at us that all of a sudden the man has a new girlfriend and it started again that he became violent and ended up in jail was just too much. This was basically half of this film here in a nutshell really. Felt very rushed in. Two other aspects I did not like refer to the female supporting characters. I mean Haase's character knew what he was like and that talk from him when he suddenly appeared at the gym changed her mind that she thinks her mother was not actually raped? Or the best you could say about this moment is that shebelieves her mother, but was just angry and wanted to hurt her. Then the best friend. She seems to be 100% on Bodenbender's character's side, but then she randomly meets the guy and thinks he is not that unlikable and all of a sudden she is not so harsh anymore. At least for a while. That makes no sense. Even if you can find good aspects there too, like how Brandt plays a man of his word, who is tough and certainly also a bit charismatic. The scene with the other guy from prison showing up and warning her could have gone all kinds of wrong, but it felt like a worthy addition. As I said, a lot has been done right here and the good moments are certainly way more frequent then the weak moments, even if this by no means is a perfect movie. But what they did all in all with a not particularly new subject was impressive at times. I could mention other scenes as well. But you watch yourself instead.
Finally, the ending with the gun was maybe a bit much, but still alright. I also liked that the gun was not a big subject in terms of talk during the film or scenes directly linked to that. I guess the boy shooting the stalker would have been too over the top and showy for my taste and I am glad that they took another route. In the face of witnesses, the male protagonist has to leave once again. I also really liked there how we see the three (mother and two children) bonding and it had a touch of love defeating the lonesome beast. But also on the island, not everything was right. Like how she sees Brandt's character coming from the ship. A bit of a coincidence she was there that very moment. Or was it just that she was sick in the head and thought she saw him? Not 100% clear either for me, but the fact that he indeed showed up later on makes me think this was really him. I read a brief plot summary about this film before watching and I honestly thought that there would be more focus on the time when they were still a couple that she would return to him several times etc. But this aspect was over already before the 30-minute mark. Absolutely fine though because the film delivered steady quality after that too in terms of all the elaborations and twists. No hesitation here for me in giving the overall outcome a positive recommendation. This is because of the subject not one of these ARD/ZDF films shown in the afternoon, too heavy for that, but I caught it around midnight last night and if you get a chance to do so, you might wanna take it too. My positive recommendation here was never remotely in doubt. For example, I also liked the scenes with the female protagonist's father. Nicely done and they never felt like filler material. Go see it, not only if you are into Jella. Mostly for Brandt, who is quietly convincing and really came off as threatening in a way that the character required him to. Strong actor.
The two actors you see on the photo here on imdb are Silke Bodenbender and Matthias Brandt. They are the two leads and I think both were good enough. The standout, however, for me is definitely Brandt here. He is apparently also the only one from cast and crew who received some awards recognition. Ironically, he lost the Jupiter Award back then to another actor from his trademark series "Polizeiruf 110". Anyway, with Brandt I always think of another film in which he played the husband to a violent wife and here the tables are turned and he is the creepy guy, even if they are not married obviously. So he can play both sides at the end of the scale convincingly. But I will talk a bit about the exact contents and plot later on. let's stay with the cast for now. Younger audiences will definitely be delighted to find Jella Haase in here and I was a bit surprised too because she is doing so much big screen work right now, but then again this was 7.5 years ago and also the most successful German actors keep returning to the small screen occasionally. She plays the female protagonist's daughter this time. Dustin Raschdorf, the actor that plays the boy, has not enjoyed the same success and it seems still undecided if he stays in acting as a grown-up. But he was, with Haase, also in "Fack ju Göhte" the film that was her big breakthrough in 2013, so the exact same year this movie here came out, even if Raschdorf's role was very small only. Other actors you find in here are Ulrike C. Tscharre, who appeared in the Oscar-nominated "Werk ohne Autor" not too long ago, Rolf Becker (why In aller Freundschaft, Rolf?) and Hansa Czypionka (I think he was also part of some stage play here in Berlin not too long ago on the subject of tennis), so the cast certainly includes a few people who are extremely experienced, probably several others too that I haven't mentioned. Feel free to check out the cast list for yourself.
So I already made a few references to the story and I will keep doing so. At its core, this is about a woman who ends up in a romantic relationship with a colleague, but things go south quickly as he turns out to be really violence. Not the most original plot to be honest, but the actors and writer still make it work for the most part and I was wondering what would happen next to the characters. Even with the constant threat by Brandt's character, they kept it not too graphic. This refers to the rape scene, but also to the exact violence we see. For example, I would not have been surprised if the character had killed Haase's character in the (almost) final scene, even if she was not his primary target. But he just knocked her down. Still the confrontation at the seaside, but also the attack on the bridge in the dark or when she exposes him to his new boss were moments that were really showy, but nonetheless felt authentic and that is something you almost never see when it comes to German television films. The good thing here probably was that they were zero going for comedy. No need for a new boyfriend at the end or forced happy ending. Well, the words we see on screen are a bit of a happy ending, but I will say a few words on that in the next paragraph. As for the small moments, I really liked the way the man perceived his ex-girlfriend's inability to be with men and open herself to them. Or also how he gets to meet her and maybe it was all planned with the punishment for her son or maybe already there he enjoyed it to humiliate her indirectly. Not 100% safe. The talk before the rape was among the best dialogue writing the film has to offer. You can see how he is disgusted for example that she was not the one who left her boyfriend, but his significant other is a woman who seems less desirable because she is the one being left and also she appears weak to him because of that, although you could say the opposite is the case because she broght up two children on her own. Or is about to do so.
As for the weaker moments, these words I just mentioned at the end of the screen seemed like some kind of happy ending pseudo closure and I did not like it at all. I mean it's obvious he is scared of witness and otherwise he would kill her immediately as we see with the children there (of course the gun also has an impact) or the guy walking his dog earlier and he definitely does not want to go to jail again, but Alexandre throwing at us that all of a sudden the man has a new girlfriend and it started again that he became violent and ended up in jail was just too much. This was basically half of this film here in a nutshell really. Felt very rushed in. Two other aspects I did not like refer to the female supporting characters. I mean Haase's character knew what he was like and that talk from him when he suddenly appeared at the gym changed her mind that she thinks her mother was not actually raped? Or the best you could say about this moment is that shebelieves her mother, but was just angry and wanted to hurt her. Then the best friend. She seems to be 100% on Bodenbender's character's side, but then she randomly meets the guy and thinks he is not that unlikable and all of a sudden she is not so harsh anymore. At least for a while. That makes no sense. Even if you can find good aspects there too, like how Brandt plays a man of his word, who is tough and certainly also a bit charismatic. The scene with the other guy from prison showing up and warning her could have gone all kinds of wrong, but it felt like a worthy addition. As I said, a lot has been done right here and the good moments are certainly way more frequent then the weak moments, even if this by no means is a perfect movie. But what they did all in all with a not particularly new subject was impressive at times. I could mention other scenes as well. But you watch yourself instead.
Finally, the ending with the gun was maybe a bit much, but still alright. I also liked that the gun was not a big subject in terms of talk during the film or scenes directly linked to that. I guess the boy shooting the stalker would have been too over the top and showy for my taste and I am glad that they took another route. In the face of witnesses, the male protagonist has to leave once again. I also really liked there how we see the three (mother and two children) bonding and it had a touch of love defeating the lonesome beast. But also on the island, not everything was right. Like how she sees Brandt's character coming from the ship. A bit of a coincidence she was there that very moment. Or was it just that she was sick in the head and thought she saw him? Not 100% clear either for me, but the fact that he indeed showed up later on makes me think this was really him. I read a brief plot summary about this film before watching and I honestly thought that there would be more focus on the time when they were still a couple that she would return to him several times etc. But this aspect was over already before the 30-minute mark. Absolutely fine though because the film delivered steady quality after that too in terms of all the elaborations and twists. No hesitation here for me in giving the overall outcome a positive recommendation. This is because of the subject not one of these ARD/ZDF films shown in the afternoon, too heavy for that, but I caught it around midnight last night and if you get a chance to do so, you might wanna take it too. My positive recommendation here was never remotely in doubt. For example, I also liked the scenes with the female protagonist's father. Nicely done and they never felt like filler material. Go see it, not only if you are into Jella. Mostly for Brandt, who is quietly convincing and really came off as threatening in a way that the character required him to. Strong actor.
