Fucking Berlin

Despite being allegedly hard-up, the two lead characters look like well fed, well paid ZDF Neo TV presenters, and both about as German as they come. In the book Sonia is an alienated young Italian, and her boyfriend a clueless wandering pole, which kind of makes sense. The film falls prey to the common desire by German filmmakers to make everything look as **nice** as possible, totally undermining any believability in the storyline. Here the homeless boyfriend carries in his tiny backpack apparently only a screwdriver, a torn KRZBRG teeshirt and... an endless wardrobe of expensive Adidas Neo clubwear. In the book Sonia lived in scummy Moabit in the 2000s - in the film though she lives today on one of the most expensive streets in Berlin. The filmmakers might as well have just given her an Audi A7 to drive around in while she ponders the source of her money problems.

An insane amount of banal exposition is delivered in PERFECTLY accented German, the film whizzes through a tour of locations that it looks like they got from last years Lonely Planet, and worst of all there is no drive or tension in the story whatsoever. Sonia, despite an apparently hedonistic and expensive lifestyle (note to filmmakers - drugs in Berlin are cheaper than beer) appears in every scene looking like she just stepped out of the health-club showers after 9 hours of sleep. There is nothing to care about in this film unless you just want to look at moving postcards of a 20-year-old's idealised vacation in "cool" Berlin.

The problem i see in the movie is with the casting: the actress that plays Sonja is just too normal, with model-like looks, whereas the author of the novel was much more peculiar. "Einsam in Berlin" -- an Italian, with rather voluptuous looks, she must have felt a bit isolated in Berlin, which eventually lead to the lifestyle. I think there is a disconnect because of the casting. Even if the book material might have not been very dramatic (being a biography, not a story), the movie is actually very watchable. The soundtrack, the city are beautiful, you see a snapshot of everyday berlin for younger, poorer people.

It's really a story about a lonely woman in berlin, during the age of legal prostitution and as berlin becomes a meltpot of its own. The layer of people that she meets might be very specific, but they are out there: the immigrants, the drug addicts, people from poorer regions. Perhaps the author wanted to separate her 'normal life' from her 'prostitution life' -- so we don't see much of interaction with her friends at school, or, perhaps, the author was autistic enough to be in a more isolated position, and the 'prostitution' life filled the friendless void.

But in essence, the movie gives a different angle on a woman and a city, not that glamorous as 'Sex & City', but there are layers in the society, and the movie captured one of them. The layers are different, the upshots of the stories are very similar.

I have to say, that I do see the points which are criticize by so many ratings. But I also see a movie that portraits the feeling of coming and living in Berlin as an outsider, in an incredible accurate way.

The plot, more the scripting of it does use a lot of clichees, but it also makes you sympathize with the main character. The cast does give me an authentic feeling of being in Berlin, whether its a club, a bar or a park.

I see the movie as a sign for how misunderstood this branch of work is and how much work is still left, until we all can accept each other and the decisions we are making in our lives.

Full of stereotypes of Berlin and without any emotional depth of the main character.

I was expecting this to be bad, but this was worse than i thought.Its not badly done but the story line is pathetic, can't believe there is actually a book out containing this trash.