Never Look Away Reviews

Since I heard that Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck had made an impressive comeback with this movie, I was really eager to check it out. Well, eventually, I have to admit that I ended up with some similar feelings I had with his classic ‘Das Leben der Anderen’. Indeed, even though I mostly admired this movie, somehow, it didn’t really grab me. Still, there is no denying that it was a really ambitious project with an impressive scope. Indeed, even though they basically focused on only one character, we followed him through 30 years, experiencing many dramatic events on a historical level but also on a personal level. The point of the movie, I guess, was to show that all these events shaped the main character as an artist but, somehow, I wasn’t completely convinced. It might have to do with the fact that, for a good chunk of the running time, we didn’t see the guy painting or drawing anything, except some naked girl when he was a little boy. In fact, it was only towards the end that we finally get to see him becoming an actual artist. In fact, it does make sense, as pointed out by his teacher, that he would finally become an artist after finally being able to translate all these dramatic, even traumatic events, into Art. Still, they could have displayed him being at least a little more creative before the very end. Another issue was probably the fact that Kurt Barnert was too passive. On the other hand, I’m glad they didn’t spend too much time on Professor Carl Seeband who was such a stereotypical Evil nazi officer. It was however really refreshing that there wasn’t a climax at the end during which the bad guy was caught and all the connections between the characterers were finally neatly explained. Anyway, to conclude, even if it wasn't a complete home-run, it was still an epic historical movie and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.