Three

Ten years after "The Warrior and the Empress" and after three international directorial efforts, Tom Tykwer once again delivers a German-language feature film with "Three" and for this he also returns to Berlin, the setting of his great success "Run Lola Run".

The film tells the story of Hanna (Sophie Rois) and Simon (Sebastian Schipper), who have been a couple for twenty years. Unmarried and childless, the two have built an everyday life for themselves as a couple, which is not necessarily boring, but not really exciting either. The love is still there, but both Hanna and Simon realize that they are also attracted to other people. What they don't suspect is that both have fallen in love with the same man (Devid Striesow). And soon the couple's lives, so ordered, are thrown into complete disarray and the question arises: is a life of three possible?

"Three" is very well acted, has some very good dialogue and an engaging visual language. Watching the acting trio of Rois/Schipper/Striesow play is a lot of fun, with not only the extended dialogue sequences but also the completely uninhibitedly staged sex scenes being convincing. But as successful as "Drei" is in the beginning, there remains a somewhat unpleasant aftertaste in the end.

Because Tykwer tells the story about a love triangle, which is very good in itself, in a way that repeatedly distracts from the actual events and thus seems completely overloaded. It almost seems as if the director tried to squeeze all the topics he couldn't accommodate in his English-language films into 2 hours of running time. And so, in addition to heterosexual and homosexual love, the film also deals with embryonic stem cell research, testicular cancer, euthanasia, the loss of loved ones and more. At times funny, at times dramatic, at times cheerful, at times depressing, "Three" offers a real emotional roller coaster ride, but it always slows itself down.

Because the mixture of the many different elements just doesn't want to ignite. The good performances of the actors are sometimes beaten to death by the ambitions of the director, which unfortunately doesn't do the film any good. That Tom Tykwer is a very good director becomes clear in enough moments. But in the end there is the realization that a stronger concentration on the love triangle, a tighter staging and a release of the unnecessary dramaturgical ballast would have done the final result a lot of good. As it is, however, "Drei" is a good film, but by no means a very good one, which can only really convince in terms of acting and visuals. And so: only with restrictions worth seeing!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp