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The Dark Side of the Moon

The Dark Side of the Moon

Deutschland/Luxembourg 2015 - with Moritz Bleibtreu, Nora von Waldstätten, Jürgen Prochnow, Doris Schretzmayer ...

The Frankfurt-Tipp rating:

Movie info

Genre:Thriller, Drama
Direction:Stephan Rick
Cinema release:14.01.2016
Production country:Deutschland/Luxembourg 2015
Running time:Approx. 98 min.
Rated:From 12 years
Web page:dsdm-film.de/

Frankfurt business lawyer Urs Blank (Moritz Bleibtreu) is a real wolf in his field: unwavering, he senses the weaknesses of his opponents and bites at the decisive moment. This has brought him much success and prosperity and has not burdened his conscience so far. But when one of his clients kills himself before his eyes after a tough negotiation, Urs slowly begins to doubt his previous life. When he meets the non-conformist Lucille (Nora von Waldstätten), he is quickly fascinated by her alternative lifestyle. And so he doesn't hesitate for long when she seduces him into a trip with hallucinogenic mushrooms. But that moment, when Urs allows himself to relinquish control, has fatal consequences and brings out his dark side. A side he can't get a handle on again. Suddenly, Urs is a time bomb driven by his primal instincts that could ruin not only his career, but his life forever.

Based on Martin Suter's novel of the same name, Stephan Rick's The Dark Side of the Moon is a gritty thriller drama that features an excellent Moritz Bleibtreu and intense imagery. The film focuses entirely on the character of Urs Blank and thus breaks away from the book template, which also gave room to the narrative perspective of other characters. For the adaptation, it was admittedly a good decision to reduce the story to its essentials. It works, too, because Urs is simply an interesting character. Even before he goes on his psycho trip, he is not exactly a man who is squeamish about his fellow man. His actions are always on the border of what is morally acceptable or even exceed it. The only difference is that in the beginning he acts quite consciously and strategically - before he loses control of himself.

When his dark side gets the upper hand, the ice-cold lawyer commits acts that should actually make the audience turn away from him in disgust. But through the well-crafted script and the intense acting of Moritz Bleibtreu, you are simply fascinated by the abysses that open up here. And somehow you also hope that Urs will find his way back to the right path after all. Also the atmospheric filming locations in Cologne and Luxembourg, which have to serve as a double for Frankfurt and the Taunus, support the gloomy-suspenseful mood, which makes especially the first hour extremely worth watching.

Now towards the end, the whole thing turns from a disturbing psycho-trip into a somewhat too conventional economic thriller. Especially the finale comes across a bit too contrived. But even here the dense staging and the good acting of the actors can make up a lot of ground. Even if Die dunkle Seite des Mondes can't quite deliver what it promises in the beginning, Stephan Rick has managed to create a thrilling and in places pleasantly multilayered piece of German thriller cinema, which, in contrast to many other German films, absolutely deserves its theatrical release because of its visual language. In the end, there is only with small deductions a clear: worth seeing!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp

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Cinema trailer for the movie "The Dark Side of the Moon (Deutschland/Luxembourg 2015)"
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