"Sieben Stunden" is a German television film from 2018, so this one os slightly over 1.5 years old and like most other small screen releases here in Germany it runs for 1.5 hours or slightly under. The director is the really experienced Christian Görlitz, who is in his mid-70s now and he is also one of the writers who adapted the book that this is based on into a film screenplay. I must say I have not read said book by Susanne Preusker, so I cannot elaborate on the question if the movie is flawed because of the book or despite the book. The lead actress here is Bibiana Beglau, a pretty experienced German actress, who is basically in every scene of this film, and I personally do not like her much admittedly, so her casting is probably the biggest subjective reason fro me why I did not like the movie too much. However, there are also objective reasons. But first things first: Beglau is basically in every scene of this film really or sometimes only extremely briefly out of the (visual) picture and even in these scenes she is still at the cennter of the action because supporting characters are on the phone with her for example. It's really all about her here. The rest of the cast is not too famous, not even here in Germany, but if you are a bit of a film buff like myself, then maybe you recognized Thomas Loibl (him I like) or Imogen Kogge. The latter by the way played Angela Merkel in a really new movie that premiered on German television today. Such bizarre stuff. But let's not drift away from these 90 minutes here. We will talk about the other movie on another occasion. The perhaps most crucial supporting character is played by Till Firit. I must say I do not know this actor, but I think he played the part well, early on as well as later on in the courtroom.
This is the story of a psychologist who gegst taken hostage by a sex offender and she is sexually abused by the man for seven hours straight. A horror experience without a doubt. There is a fairly clean structure in this film though. The first half hour is about everything that leads up to the attack and also includes the attack herself. The next half hour is about the aftermath and how the protagonist tries to lead a somewhat normal life again. And the final half hour is basically about the professional consequences and her fighting for her right. That sounds pretty general, but in case you watch the movie, you know what I mean. There is certainly a cleaner cut between the first and second third than between the second and third third, but still it's easy to see. And I like this clean structure. However, there are many things in this film I did not like. Like I said in the title of my review, on many occasions, it feels as if there is far too much sensationalism in here and it feels very much for the sake of it. The best example, even if it is just one sentence, is when she is at the hospital in bed immediately after the attack and says something like: "He made me his b*tch." Okay. I don't think I have to elaborate on that any further. Cringeworthy stuff. Maybe this line is from Görlitz's co-writer Pim Richter here as I have checked his body of work and he has worked on many bad projects, almost exclusively on bad projects. Not that Görlitz's body of work is perfect or anything, there are also some fairly flawed inclusions listed. Okay, there are other moments when this film struggles hard. Just take the idea that the victim sees her attacked in other people for a while. I mean it was not the newest or most creative idea, but it as alright the first time they did it. However, they probably recognized that it is working fine, so they used the same idea for 2 minutes (or so) straight, first with the husband, then jus with another guy who is around and sees her in her car. This is when it becomes really exaggerated and ridiculous. From a less specific point of view, you could say that eventually the film is about nothing in terms of substance except including as many people as possible who somewhat humiliate the protagonist by well, not making her feel guilty, but making her odner what she could have done wrong. It gets really repetitive eventually, especially when her husband makes a similar statement. At that point, it is personal because it is not just (former) colleagues and the judge anymore. By the way, the judge was pretty good, even if he did not have too much to work with. I recoognized the actor somehow and I think I liked him in something else. Okay and finally, maybe when the film hit rock bottom, we have the scene that is a bit of a confrontation between the victim and the offender and this was initiated by the victim. It is not 100% clear if it is just in her mind or actually happening, but it felt very wrong and for the sake of it how she is coming at him there in this specific scene. To end my review on a slightly more positive note, I would like too say that the last shot with her sleeping peacefully and her husband watching her was among the better moments from this movie. Maybe actually the best. Still this cannot make up for all the areas and scenes in whcih they messed up before that. Eventually it is nothing but an entertaining movie (if at all), but in terms of depth and substance, it comes extremely short and the subject offered so much. I am actually surprised though that apparently I am not the only one who thinks so because Beglau did not get a single award for her super baity performance here. Honestly, I would have expected this to win her trophies left and right from bodies like the German Televevision Academy etc. They got it right to ignore her portrayal. The other way around, in conclusion, this film got it wrong. Don't watch. It's not a failure by any means, but not good enough overall.
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