2 out of 5

Directed by: Vincent Pérez

An interesting story adapted a bit too openly from its source material to create much impact.

‘Alone in Berlin’ is the fifth (and first English) take on author Hans Fallada’s “Jeder stirbt für sich allein,” which eventually became “Everyone dies alone” in its translations, and then – tellingly – a very generic title for Vincent Pérez’s 2016 edition. The book – and the movie – fictionalizes the stories of Otto and Elise Hampel, sort of accidental German Resistance fighters during World War II, whose stories were plucked by Fallada from their Gestapo file and turned in to Otto and Anna Quangel. For ‘Alone in Berlin,’ Otto and Anna are played by Brendan Gleeson and Emma Thompson, which leads to one of the first hiccups I had with this movie: that it was in English.

I mean, duh, Gleeson and Thompson could’ve picked up some German but I wouldn’t’ve expected an entire film of non-native speakers giving that a go, nor is my statement anything about “accuracy” in casting (if so, I’d note that many actors in the film are German or part-German, though everyone is speaking English); we’ve been doing the let’s-pretend-we’re-speaking-the-language-by-doing-an-accent shift in movies for decades, which is the approach here. But… there was something about the approach of the movie, and my lack of familiarity with the book / original subject matter, which actually had me question my fellow film-watchers: are we supposed to be interpreting that Otto and Anna, in the movie, are actually speaking English?

There are cues movies often use to indicate the whole location-language swap thing, which is sometimes called “translation convention,” with one of my “favorites” being The Hunt for the Red October starting in a foreign language before shifting to English. I have kinda grown tired of using accents to indicate things – tropily referred to as Just a Stupid Accent – but I get it, and maybe it’s fun for actors to do; that’s essentially what Alone in Berlin is doing, but in a rather dated way that seems ignorant of these cues, and weird for a movie shot in Germany with several aforementioned German actors. There are several surface level aspects of the movie that carry this same ignorance: discordant (with the rest of the film’s style) edits; ignorance of the 180 degree rules without purpose. So despite there being a good story here – and truly great performances from our leads – these tics really got in my way of ever feeling “convinced” by the film’s atmosphere, or immersed in the drama.

And there’s a much more affecting aspect of this: the story itself isn’t told well. I would guess that this is mainly a consequence of director Pérez and cowriters Bettine and Achim von Borries trying too hard to adapt smaller beats from the book, as the film winds through several sub-beats very much prior to the main story starting that are arguably intended to be indicative catalysts for Otto and Anna’s rebellion, but ultimately feel disconnected to events – and sadly just slow the pace and impact of our husband and wife’s decision. That decision – which takes the form of anti-fascist messaging being written on cards, and placed in public areas – has no buildup on its own either, or rather kind of spoils the point up front: the couple has lost their son to the war, and Otto declares, publicly, at work, that he can do no more than offer up this sacrifice to The Fuhrer. I don’t mean “spoil” as a plot twist in this instance, rather that this statement should be a kind of emotional release that leads into the card writing, and instead, because of the paced and roundabout manner in which things are sequenced, feels far away from the followup act.

Lastly, the environment doesn’t really tell the tale of the war. I’d initially thought this was purposeful – to keep the effects distant, and let Otto and Anna’s actions resonate separately – but the sub-beats and other instances are trying to sell us on the dangers of independence at the time, and more directly of the card-writing act itself; it’s just not felt on the screen. Some of this is budget; some of it I’d classify as the same kind of amateurishness of the above-mentioned tics – like, you know the story of WWII, so we don’t really need to sell it to you, right?

I’m pitching this as incompetent; it’s not, but considering the pedigree of its cast and the potential richness of the subject matter, Alone in Berlin accomplishes only a surface level summary of its characters and story.