Never Look Away (2018)
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Never Look Away Movie Review
Never Look Away is a 2018 German historical drama film directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck and starring Tom Schilling. It’s a terrific film.
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“Never look away“
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It can be considered a biopic, but the artist himself Gerhard Richter was really not satisfied with this film so it’s more of a historical drama about art and the problematic history of Germany throughout the middle of the 20th century. And it succeeds as a terrific drama and one of the best German films of this century so far.
This film is not only extremely slow in its pace, but it’s also incredibly long, clocking in at around three hours. However, I still ate it up completely against all of these seemingly insurmountable odds because it’s simply that good and that effective.
It follows the life of an artist around the mid of the century in Germany and his relationship with the woman who is a daughter of the Nazi sympathizing doctor who sterilized his aunt back in the forties. When the two move to West Germany, he has troubles with his past which comes to haunt him and it takes an immediate effect upon his artistic output.
So it’s pretty much a meditative movie which only starts to develop the true meat of the story around the two-hour mark and the remainder is literally a giant set-up. While the later part of this set-up was a bit clunky and slow at times, most of it was exhilarating to me and strangely involving. It had to have developed for a longer runtime for the rest of the drama to unfold in a more impactful manner.
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And yes, I loved its meditative, intense and truly powerful in emotion third act. It was incredibly thrilling in a way and quite moving and even heartbreaking. It showcases how a terrible country’s history can really change a person and take a toll on the remainder of his life. It’s also a beautiful showcase of the power of art and how deeply personal it can be in some cases and all the more impactful and artistic for it.
I liked the characters across the board. The aunt is so wonderful and what happened to her was so horrible, even more so as she was very likable before that. The doctor himself is a terrible, but realistic Nazi villain and I really liked the love interest too. The protagonist is well realized and his inner turmoil is so well explored. The acting is strong in each and every performance, especially in the more meditative sequences.
Never Look Away is a very sexual movie and although most of it wasn’t really needed for this type of story, I personally mostly ended up liking the sex scenes as they were sensual and they emphasized the power of youthful energy so well. But the best scenes are the first couple of scenes with the aunt and of course the third act which is amazing in its entirety.
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The movie was nominated for Best Cinematography, but it should have been nominated for Best Original Score instead as the beautiful music is so much more memorable than the visuals in this film, but of course the pictures themselves are striking in their beauty. The direction is also great and although the pacing is problematic, the movie is still very engaging and ultimately one of the better foreign movies of the year which I did not expect at all.
Against seemingly insurmountable obstacles (a three-hour runtime and a very slow pace), Never Look Away is strangely involving almost in its entirety and often even captivating. Thanks to a beautiful score, great performances and an effective meditative feel to it, it’s a very moving, strong drama with a striking third act that was all the more powerful because of the very long, but necessary and so well developed set-up.
