Review by Karl Self

I was amazed by how good this movie was. I more or less walked into the cinema because I needed some distraction, and it seemed like the best thing on that evening. I haven't read the book and didn't know anything beforehand.

Director Ed Herzog hasn't many feature movies to his name and has mostly directed TV features, but it shows in a good way. The movie is unpretentious and understated, but in a good way, and every scene hits home. The actors bring out the most interesting angle of their characters. The movie is funny when it's supposed to be, there is suspense when there is supposed to be suspense, and unrequited romance when ... you get the point. The affluent pastoral boredom of Nether Bavaria and the Munich suburbs, with its immaculately kept but sanitized village squares, is well observed and accurately portrayed. The story is true-to-life and adequately gritty, but there is also a modicum of screen magic and entertainment -- of course, you won't find any cops complementing their uniforms with blue jeans and a casual T-shirt even in the farthest necks of the wood in Bavaria, but being the deadbeat cop of a boondock village never felt so cool before.