Lila, Lila (2009)

Popular German actor Daniel Brühl plays David Kern, a socially awkward waiter who works a dead end job in a chic cafe. One day he stumbles upon the biggest break of his life, an unpublished manuscript which he finds in a jammed nightstand drawer. He reads the manuscript, and thinking there might be something to it, claims it as his own in order to impress Marie, a pretty literature student who frequents the cafe. The manuscript turns out to be a lost masterpiece. Marie is quite taken with this stunning new writer, and is not content to let the hefty document go unpublished, much to David’s dismay. With David’s guilty conscience nibbling away, a stranger appears - the real author of the story, Jackie Stocker. Jackie wastes no time prying into David’s life and turning his newfound fame into a living nightmare. David, unable to comprehend what is unfolding before him, must come to grips with what his deception has caused, and figure out what exactly are Jackie’s plans. Will Jackie expose David as a fraud, or will he just “settle” for blackmailing him? Jackie, a shrewd con-man who recognizes opportunity when he sees it, latches onto David for dear life and soon proves to be as much of a weasel as David proves to be auspicious. Based on the novel Lila Lila by Martin Suter, the film is a story with a refreshing ending in which forgiveness and reconciliation overcome misguided intentions. It is in the end in which the perpetrator realizes the error of his ways, and is afforded a chance to remain atop his perch while mending the most precious thing to him that had appeared to be broken forever. Daniel Brühl is among the more well-known foreign actors, particularly for his performance in Inglorious Basterds, and also for other films such as The Bourne Ultimatum, Goodbye Lenin!, and Salvador. Now most recently, Brühl has starred in mainstream Hollywood pictures Rush and The 5th Estate.