The Wall (2012)

Aside from an interesting but ultimately wasted premise, this film consists of mainly three things: Beautiful landscapes, some nice classical music, and relentless, never-ending, annoying narration.

I wouldn't really have *liked* the movie without the narration, as think the story is pretentious nonsense, but i could have enjoyed it at least on a purely aesthetical level. However, as it is now, almost every minute is ruined by the female narrator telling us what we see, what we could see but are told instead, or musings we (or at least me) really didn't need to hear.

I don't care that it's based on a book, I haven't read it, and I certainly have no wish to do so after watching this. Movies are movies, not audio-books with pictures. I can't fathom who still thinks narrations, or text-screens, are a good way to tell a story in a predominantly visual medium. Either it was executive meddling, or someone was just too much in love with the book.

Also, the movie is way too long for the amount of story it's telling, we never find out anything about the characters life before the movie, and the end is (predictably) not very satisfying.

Fmovies: My first instinct after Die Wand had finished was to dismiss it as self-indulgent rubbish and give it a 3/10, whereas halfway through I was nicely into it where it probably deserved a 7. So halfway-house it is then.

What went wrong? After the mysterious setup of the invisible wall, and two excellent early scenes involving frozen neighbours and a car, the story winds down into solipsistic musing about the oneness of nature, which can be quite interesting. A monologue describing how the forest's thoughts are becoming one with her own was profound, putting into words something some of us may have felt from time to time.

Near the end there is a disappointing dramatic incident which feels contrived, and even then the story syncs back into its stoic pace: ultimately leaving us entirely underwhelmed. It must also be said that we (watching together with my partner) needed 3 evenings to get through the whole film, having had to break it up into three shorter parts as we always fell sleepy.

Regarding characterisation, it's typical of modern melancholic German drama: stark, sparse, stoic and frankly too monotone for the viewer to achieve much sentimental connection.

Recommended if:

• you appreciate landscape cinematography filmed in the still-picture style. Almost every picture is a keeper.

• you are interested in an oblique story about a woman's necessary connection with animals and nature, away from everything else.

• you enjoy a really slow pace, with many long scenes where literally nothing happens other than inviting the viewer to soak up the atmosphere.

• you prefer to objectively identify a film's strengths rather than subjectively enjoy the ride.

• you have trouble getting to sleep.

• you're tired of bland characterisation and dull pacing in German film.

• you're expecting a sci-fi/supernatural mystery.

• you like some kind of real-world explanation.

• you prefer the camera work to offer more variety than the still-picture style.

• you don't enjoy encrypting metaphor.

THE WALL is an interesting--though people who want a really tangible storyline and/or fast action and suspense might choose the word "boring"--little film.

How to describe it? Quiet, somber, original, going deep without trying too hard. Fantastic in the most literal sense. Well-acted and well-filmed: The Austrian Alpine scenery, perhaps the single best thing about THE WALL, is just spectacular. Still, there are a number of plot-holes and incomplete threads, things that don't add up and are not apparently supposed to--"Kafkaesque" is another word that kept running through my mind as I watched.

Though it's nothing great, I'm happy to have seen THE WALL and, most of all, am eager to read the original novel by Marlen Haushofer, which, even if it doesn't make completely logical sense, based on the reviews, apparently has more sense of completion.

The Wall fmovies. The protagonist finds herself in an unexplained silent disaster and in complete isolation which immediately intrigues. Particularly since it plays in the right-there present. There is no reminiscing about the past, her background, people she knows.

Although she makes some effort to find out more about this invisible wall the story zeros in on her sole surviving and loneliness. I was completely sucked in to the narration, the beautiful scenery and the phenomenal acting.

The performance is stunning and breathtakingly intense. This one I have to see a few more times just to get the complete gist of it. Beautiful! I wonder though if there is any significance to the radio channel playing in the beginning, the language is undetectable. Maybe it was done to intensify the sense of alienation.

This is a film that has left such an impression on me that I was very curious what other viewers interpretations of it were. I felt the beauty and despair of loneliness. The connection humans can have with nature and above all... animals, our need for them not only to fill our void socially and emotionally, but as creatures to sustain our life in all ways. Even if to give us a purpose.

The irony that she was there on a hunting trip with friend that she obviously was not partaking in, but had probably not thought much about . I appreciated that she really understood that hunting should only be for food and could not understand how any being could take pleasure out of death of an animal.

The vivid beauty of Austria was captivating. This is a beautiful film that I will never quite forget. It has reminded me of how strong humans can be when they have to be to survive, how fragile we are, and how our brains have the capability to adapt to situations that are unexplainable when all feels hopeless.

Not to be confused with the Pink Floyd film, the Wall is a poetic and beautifully shot film about isolation and nature. The basic premise is that a woman suddenly discovers that she is surrounded by an invisible wall. The film shows how the woman deals with her situation through a diary that she keeps, documenting the events of this unfortunate event.

It is part survival film and part existential allegory with a dash of psychological horror.

The film does have a slow pace that would probably be a bore for the masses, but I enjoyed its meditative pace that allows you to feel the gravity of the situation at hand and marvel at the beauty of nature (which is also a heavy theme in this film).

10/10 for originality and beauty