"Ein gefährliches Angebot", which means "a dangerous offer", is a German television film from 2016, so this one will have its fifth anniversary next year, and maybe it happened already depending on when you read this review. It is not a particularly new film nor a really old one. Initially, by the way, they planned on going for a slightly different title, namely with the German word for "fateful" in the middle. I like the actual choice better. The writer and director is Hannu Salonen, who was, as you may have guessed from the title, born in Finland. However, by the point when he started making movies, namely in the late 1990s, he was already here in Germany and has worked on many, many German-language projects in the last 20 years. So no back to the roots for him. It's also not too usual to see somebody in charge for both screenplay and direction when it comes to German small screen releases. Not that it never happens, but it is definitely not the rule. Still it must be added that Salonen is not the only writer here, but it was a collaboration between him and Sven Poser. Poser has also worked for a long time in the film industry, and both him and Salonen are filmmakers who you do not see credited with trashy ARD Degeto projects (or almost never at least), but those whho worked on projects that had at least a certain ambition, regardless of the question if said ambition had been fulfilled. There is definitely ambition with this project here, even if all in all I think they came a bit short. But it's fitting this is a film still shown at prime time and not in the afternoon. Another reason is of course that there is no extremely poor and unauthentic romance story in here. Said ambition also attracted the attention of a cast that is way better than what you usually see in small screen releases. The one and only female actor in here with a significant deal of screen time is Petra Schmidt-Schaller. And while she was okay overall, I still find it exaggerated that she receoved a decent amount of awards attention for her portrayal here, although, if you take a closer look, a lot of it is also linked to other projects, so one nomination for several films and maybe she is better in those other films. I don't think she really stood out here or did something out of the ordinary. The entire major supporting cast are all males. Christian Berkel you see on the photo already and there's also Fabian Busch, Armin Rohde and André Hennicke, a quartet of actors who have been famous for a long time and whose faces and names every German film buff will immediately recognize. I could also say quintet and include Ludger Pistor, who is an actor I personally appreciate a lot and I like how he has even been in a Bond film, even if his role there was not big at all. Well, his role here is even smaller. Pity. What a waste. I finally want to see a movie where he is featured in more than just a minute or so. Oh yeah, Anian Zollner is in here too. I must say I am not too familiar with him and that he also did not feel memorable to me in this one we got here, but looking at his body of work it is probably my loss. He has been in a few films that got a great deal of attention and not only here in Germany.
As for the story, I think the film gets a bit weaker the longer it goes. The entire introduction to the whole setting and to the organisation that the protagonist now works for was okay in terms of how interesting it felt. The idea of spying on people and if they are unfaithful or for whatever other reasons was decent enough too, but when they had to elaborate in-depth on what happens to these characters, then the film goes down south a bit quality-wise unfortunately and does not make enough use the way it could have in turning this into a quality piece. It is never also a weak movie must be said, but eventually it comes short for me in terms of a positive recommendation. There are key factors I did not like too much, like when they planted the evidence on Berkel's character's laptop and turned him into a bigger culprit than he actually was. With the intention to destroy his career. I must say I never felt this organisation was high-profile enough as they want us to think. Admittedly, I am going too easy on the cast members here because some of them have a tendency to rely more on recognition value than on real range and versatility and also frequently play the exact same characters in every movie. It's up to you to decide who this definition applies to if you have seen the film yourself. But better choice may be to skip it. Also when Rohde's and Hennicke's characters die from falling down after a fight sequence, it is daring to kill them this way, but iit did not feel too authentic either. Same about Berkel's character siding with the female protagonist now or the female protagonist being potentially suspected of having killed the two men. They are just trying to move the film into too many directions and make it more interesting this way, while the better solution would have been to take one clearly-defined route and make the most of it all there. The ending also does not only feel a bit too abrupt, but also too happy in an unrealistic manner for my taste. The two brutes are dead and, honestly, again the way they died showed basically that they were amateurs and all we know about them before was supposed to make us think they are great professionals, so not sure what all this was about. What I am sure about, however, is that I give this film a thumbs-down overall because of the decline in quality in the second half. Go watch something else instead.
As for the story, I think the film gets a bit weaker the longer it goes. The entire introduction to the whole setting and to the organisation that the protagonist now works for was okay in terms of how interesting it felt. The idea of spying on people and if they are unfaithful or for whatever other reasons was decent enough too, but when they had to elaborate in-depth on what happens to these characters, then the film goes down south a bit quality-wise unfortunately and does not make enough use the way it could have in turning this into a quality piece. It is never also a weak movie must be said, but eventually it comes short for me in terms of a positive recommendation. There are key factors I did not like too much, like when they planted the evidence on Berkel's character's laptop and turned him into a bigger culprit than he actually was. With the intention to destroy his career. I must say I never felt this organisation was high-profile enough as they want us to think. Admittedly, I am going too easy on the cast members here because some of them have a tendency to rely more on recognition value than on real range and versatility and also frequently play the exact same characters in every movie. It's up to you to decide who this definition applies to if you have seen the film yourself. But better choice may be to skip it. Also when Rohde's and Hennicke's characters die from falling down after a fight sequence, it is daring to kill them this way, but iit did not feel too authentic either. Same about Berkel's character siding with the female protagonist now or the female protagonist being potentially suspected of having killed the two men. They are just trying to move the film into too many directions and make it more interesting this way, while the better solution would have been to take one clearly-defined route and make the most of it all there. The ending also does not only feel a bit too abrupt, but also too happy in an unrealistic manner for my taste. The two brutes are dead and, honestly, again the way they died showed basically that they were amateurs and all we know about them before was supposed to make us think they are great professionals, so not sure what all this was about. What I am sure about, however, is that I give this film a thumbs-down overall because of the decline in quality in the second half. Go watch something else instead.
