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Undine Movie Review

Undine is a 2020 German fantasy drama film directed by Christian Petzold and starring Paula Beer and Franz Rogowski. It’s a very strange movie.

Undine works as a historian and museum director specializing in the urban development of Berlin. However, when the man she loves leaves her, her world falls apart and the spell is broken. The main problem with this movie is that it never decides what it wants to be as it shifts focus from drama to fantasy to even some suspenseful thriller elements, but it never sticks with anything for particularly long, resulting in a muted product overall.

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There are some interesting elements and scenes that appealed to me. The love for a city is well emphasized and how potent that love can be. Also, those underwater sequences were gorgeous with the giant catfish sighting being particularly enchanting and creepy at the same time. The way these underwater scenes were shot was perfect as they emphasized both the beauty and the danger of this world. Some of the imagery here is stunning.

However, Undine is at its worst when focusing on the romance, which simply did not work for me because I did not care for these characters. Franz Rogowski and Paula Beer in particular do their best to make their characters stand out, but the writing on them is so weak that ultimately nothing could have saved these two. There are some sweet moments to be had with the couple, but otherwise the romance did not work for me.

Undine is also terribly directed by Christian Petzold whose pretentious approach and indecisive focus made this movie a chore to sit through. Again, some of the elements I did respect and the mix of genres was admirable on paper, but not in execution as the movie is chaotic in pacing, structure and purpose. At the end of the day, it’s mostly a waste of time that is only good in certain stretches, but watching it as a whole, it is quite mediocre.

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