Unfortunately, a gimmicky construction helps the writer-director avoid facing the consequences of the drama he's set up.
Comment
09/29/07
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Yella (2008)
78 %
Reviews Counted: 40 Fresh: 31 Rotten:9 Average Rating: 6.3/10
Consensus:
Chilly and haunting, Yella's atmosphere gets under the skin.
Rated: 12A
Runtime: 89 mins
Theatrical Release: 21-09-2007
Synopsis: Narrowly escaping her volatile ex-husband, Yella (Nina Hoss) flees her small hometown in former East Germany for a new life in the West. She finds a promising job with Philipp (Devid Striesow), a handsome business executive with whom an unlikely romance soon blossoms. But just as Yella seems... [More]
Genre: Foreign Films
Starring: Nina Hoss, Devid Striesow, Hinnerk Schönemann, Burghart Klaussner, Barbara Auer
Reviews
Tricky and insinuating, this German drama has the subtle subtext of a thriller as it follows a woman caught at a crossroads in her life. It's a little aloof and dry, but very well made.
09/21/07
A supernatural thriller with much to say on the greed and venality that underpins new Europe, Christian Petzold's German drama is spookily intriguing.
09/21/07
This disquieting parable about trust and risk wrong-foots us at every turn.
09/21/07
Towards the end the symbolism gets heavy-handed, but by then the film has already cast its coldly mesmerising spell.
09/21/07
Top Critic
Exquisitely frigid, menacing, disquieting, with a storyline that keeps you off-balance, marred only by a slightly hackneyed dénouement.
09/21/07
Top Critic
A rich, inventive and atmospheric thriller that is somehow able to reveal the final twist while retaining its mysterious allure.
09/21/07
Top Critic
Like its heroine, Yella is well-turned-out but chilly; it rarely stirs the emotions, but keeps the attention hooked.
09/21/07
A haunting suspense drama, which compares favourably with some of the best continental cinema.
09/21/07
An expertly crafted thriller which offers a pessimistic, though deeply rewarding, glimpse of a society being haunted by its own past.
09/21/07
Top Critic
The consequences of Reunification are explored in this effective metaphysical thriller.
09/21/07
Top Critic
Engaging, well acted and impressively directed German drama, though the ending is a bit of a disappointment.
09/20/07
Too obscure and oblique in its aims to completely enthral, Yella manages to get under the skin thanks to Hoss' bewitching performance as the troubled number cruncher and a final reveal that complicates everything that's gone before.
09/18/07
Top Critic
Strikes a perfect balance between corporate intrigue and metaphysical mystery; his 2007 drama is filled with suspense but ends in delicious ambiguity.
08/01/08
Yella is a reserved young woman with unrevealed depths of intelligence, larceny and passion. Their gradual revelation makes this more than an ordinary thriller, in great part because of the performance of Nina Hoss in the title role.
08/01/08
Top Critic
The German offering Yella begins with an utterly gripping first 15 minutes, follows with a passable drama and ends with a big disappointment.
07/31/08
This German rip-off of Herk Harvey's 1962 Carnival of Souls replaces the junky eeriness of the original with a disassociated pretentiousness that is more irritating than creepy.
07/11/08
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