Die dunkle Seite des Mondes

I saw Die Dunkle Seite des Mondes at the premiere in Berlin and was positively surprised! The story about a successful lawyer whose life spins out of control and races towards a showdown delivers a great atmosphere. Especially the camera-work is amazing delivering very atmospheric and moody shots of nature and the forest which is an integral part of the story. The director really has a great eye for setting up a mood. Also the actors do a real great job. Moritz Bleibtreu is exceptionally good at portraying the different mental states of his character and how he slowly loses his control. Very well done.

The movie strays quite a bit from the book but it would probably not have been possible to put everything from the book into a 90 minute film. If you can accept the movie as more of a focused and condensed version of the book you may find it quite entertaining.

Especially loved the end which leaves a lot of room for interpretation.

I must say i really enjoyed the first 2/3 of the movie: its atmospheric and the story-line advances fast and the movie really captivates you. But then it all went wrong, that in the end i would not recommend to watch this movie. What happened? For me a story-driven movie like this one needs to have a somewhat plausible end. The story advances to more and more to unrealistic heights, which makes one ask oneself "i am really curious with what "magical trick" at the end everything will make sense". The movie builds up tension and more tension for the end and then the movie more or less just stops. Its like really good sex that builds up more and more and then it just stops without an orgasm: leaving you unsatisfied and frustrated...

What a waste of the talents of Prochnow and Bleibtreu.

We have all heard the urban legend of a bad trip right? But what if it wasn't just an urban legend? What if after taking drugs your personality would be altered? What if you couldn't control your temper any more? Die dunkle Seite des Mondes explores some great themes of the human condition and whether or not you are responsible for all your actions. Additionally you get wonderful nature shots that reminded me of such movies like The Revenant. Also quite some good acting from some of the biggest actors of German cinema. Especially fans of Dune and Das Boot should be happy to see Jürgen Prochnow deliver a great performance. Great little film if you dig suspense.

One of the worst film that I've seen in my life. Absolutely disproportionate about the central topic of the script and the rest is superficial and without the minimum of interest.

The idea about the use of psylocibes is confusing and reveal a total ignorance or misunderstanding about it. It's like a film class B with an extreme distortion, almost a comic of the suspense (in the bad sense).

Definitely not recommended.