Summary
4 tech score
“Berlin, I Love You” (Saban Films)
“Berlin, I Love You” is a film that delivers a variety of love stories or stories that have a hint of romance. There are ten of them in all, caught together in a two hour movie. If you do the math each segment gets approximately twelve minutes of screen time. That is certainly not time enough to build any sort of characterizations or to develop any semblance of a plot. I didn’t hate “Berlin, I Love You” but I certainly didn’t love it.
The problem is I wanted to love it. When you have stars such as Keira Knightley, Helen Mirren, Jim Sturgess, Luke Wilson and Diana Agron in the cast you go in with wonderful expectations. But as each segment appears and fades out, your enthusiasm wanes. For example the Knightley/Mirren episode. It has such promise in this story of a mother and daughter who seem conflicted in their love for each other. Just as a real relationship is on the verge of breaking through, the segment ends.
Idiot that I am, I really thought this storyline would pick back up later in the movie. It didn’t. None of the different stories actually interwove. The only connection they have is the city of Berlin and I wasn’t much impressed by the scenery that was shown. It all looked bleak and most of the stories told were that way too.
As good as the Knightley/Mirren story could have been, the Mickey O’Rourke/Toni Garnn segment is on a slippery slope of terribleness as soon as Rourke appears on screen. He meets a young woman in a bar and puts some moves on her. The age difference is startling and then there is a possibility introduced that she might be his long lost daughter. Uncomfortable is one of the more accetable descriptions of this segment.
The film is rated R for profanity, mild violence and brief nudity.
It is difficult to understand how you and have ten different stories in an anthology and not one of them is entertaining. Some come close (take a bow Jenna Dewan and Diana Agron) but none succeed. “Berlin, I Love You” goes 0 for 10 and that’s a real shame. The talent is there, but the execution is not
I scored “Berlin, I Love You” a touristy 4 out of 10.
Jackie K Cooper
www.jackiekcooper.com
I so disagree. I watched this movie on VOD and I loved it so much I watched it again with friends (who also loved it.) I’ve never been to Berlin but I felt like I was transported there to different parts of the city. I was so charmed by the story with Jim Sturgess and the car that I was in tears at the end. I couldn’t believe that a story that short could make me care that much about the characters. I thought the Helen Mirren piece was also really good and it didn’t give us an easy ending tied in a bow. It showed a moment of progress and the complicated love between a mother and daughter. The musical number was so beautiful. The only one I didn’t love was the one was the spy story that was very predictable. Don’t listen to this reviewer, check this movie out yourself and I think you’re going to fall in love.
I am pleased you liked it. I usually like movies of this sort, and I thought it had an amazing cast. Still the stories were just too brief and too unappealing to hold my interest. But it was great seeing Jenna Dewan in that musical number.