The Cold Room

Enjoyed this film starring George Segal, (Hugh Martin), who plans a trip to visit his girl friend, Lili,(Renee Southendjik) who lives in Germany during the cold war and decides to bring his daughter Carla Martin,(Christa Bruckner). Carla attended a Catholic College and was given a book from a Nun concerning Berlin, Germany during 1936 and WW II and Carla becomes very interested in this book and it has a great effect on Carla's visit to Germany. This is something like a story of "Diary of Anne Frank" and Carla begins to have visions of what it was like during these war years. Carla does not get along very well with Lili and causes all kinds of problems in her hotel room and starts moving furniture all around the room and even starts to steal large amounts of food, silverware, cups plates and acts like a completely crazy person. This is a very interesting film and worth your time in viewing.

This is a somewhat ambitious movie about an adolescent English girl (Amanda Pays) visiting East Germany with her divorced American father (George Segal). The girl (who's kind of an annoying brat to begin with)becomes possessed by the spirit of a previous young female tenant of the house, who during WWII was hiding a Jewish male lover in a "cold room" behind the wall.

People say a lot of bad things about this movie. But considering it was made by the guy that wrote the piece-of-crap script for the piece- of-crap 80's movie "Fatal Attraction", I thought it was OK. It isn't very well-executed, but frankly it's a hell of a lot more ambitious than "Fatal Attraction" (which was basically a crappy re-make of "Play Misty for Me" made to cash in on 80's AIDS hysteria). George Segal is OK as the father. Unfortunately, Amanda Pays, in her first film, is simply not a strong enough actress to do this role very convincingly. (She's a very pretty girl though who later appeared most famously in the Rob Lowe movie "Oxford Blues"). The other actors all seem to be East European, perhaps ones living in Britain or whatever country they actually filmed this in. James Dearden does a pretty bad job of directing this, leaving all kinds of loose ends everywhere. Thank god though he wasn't responsible for the source material (I haven't read the book this was based on, but I'm sure it's far, far better than anything this talentless Hollywood hack could have come up with).

At times this seems almost like a children's movie. But then it also contains scenes like where the possessed protagonist has a fever dream where she experiences her forbear's experience of being raped by her father--and then she falsely tells the East German authorities SHE was raped by her own father! (Luckily a doctor inspects her and it turns out ghosts can't rupture hymens). I think if they took a few scenes like this out, this could be kind of a decent high-school horror companion piece to "The Diary of Ann Frank". As it is, it's a very flawed film, but a kind of interesting one.

"A British girl is traveling with her estranged father in order to attempt to rebuild their relationship. Shortly after they arrive in East Germany, the girl begins to suffer from strange sensations and mental lapses, where she remembers events from World War II that she could never have experienced herself. Is this a case of mental breakdown, is it possible memories from a past life, or is she dealing with a rip in the fabric of time and she is actually experiencing the events for real?" asks the DVD sleeve's synopsis.

James Dearden's "The Cold Room" opens with the telling definition: "Possession: psychological state in which an individual personality is replaced by another." In this case, possession can also be mind-numbingly dull. When she throws up her milk, you'll know ill-tempered Amanda Pays (as Carla Martin) is becoming Nazi-era rape victim "Christa Bruckner". Her father, George Segal (as Hugh Martin), wants to bridge the generation gap, as Ms. Pays goes mad. Pretty, model-like Pays has some serious father problems. Anthony Higgins (as Erich) has a good supporting role.

*** The Cold Room (1984) James Dearden ~ Amanda Pays, George Segal, Anthony Higgins

The movie lights upon "unfinished" business, as shown from the dreams of Amanda Pays' character. The unfinished business is almost reminding of the Gordon Lightfoot song, If You Could Read My Mind. On a vulture note, a hint of a sub-parallel; a similarity to Seward's Ice Box/Polar Bear Garden - Alaska, USA.

World War, US War History buffs and students pour through info. for study, research and writing. While doing so, watching the movie becomes an opportunity to consider such possible aforsaid symbolism; then, to refine it; to supplicate the history/movie experience.

Whether or not the movie's possible symbolism fits into a template like format, using other content to describe something - like an allegory from symbolism, is interesting. Ambitious history buffs, amateur code breakers and students might find some "meat and potato" substance there.

George Segal is the estranged father of a 17 year old girl. She is a troubled youth and is played quite ably Amanda Pays. In an attempt to reconnect with his daughter, Segal takes her from London to East Berlin. She is not happy and quite rude to him but he continues to try and please her. The East Berlin setting makes for empty streets and strange encounters. Why he picks this locale is never explained. It's a grim place. The daughter gets into all sorts of strange physic changes which makes her unbalanced and unpredictable.

Warren Clarke has a marvelous part as a "heavy" which is a far cry from his performance as Detective in "Dalziel and Pascoe" (61 episodes)a

It's worth your time if you really need diversion. There are some real "plot holes" so don't expect a satisfactory ending.